A local fisherman, recently laid off by BP from the cleanup effort, speaking at the town hall meeting in Buras, LA. In his hand you can see the bottle of crude oil he got from the wetlands.
Government officials and BP have not been forthcoming with data detailing the levels of contamination in the wetlands along the coast. The 1.7 million gallons of dispersant BP has dumped into the Gulf have sunken the oil to the bottom sea floor, which is especially troubling considering the types of fishing that go on in this area. Shrimping and fishing for oysters involve raking the sea floor, gathering food from deep under the mud. This is exactly the area that is most contaminated, prompting concerns that opening of the wetlands for shrimping and gathering of oysters is premature. The Secretary of the Navy was hesitant to admit that he would feed his children shrimp from the Gulf, prompting this qualification: “I trust the FDA, and if the FDA approves eating the seafood here, I would feed it to my child.”
