July 1, 2010

US shrimps to recover during no-fishing period

 

The shrimp industry has been in the spotlight in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, but while the oil gushing into the gulf is bad for shrimpers, it may end up being good for shrimps, biologists and economists say.

"The fact that we're not fishing is probably going to be more beneficial to the animals than that the oil is there [and will be harmful]," said Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of the marine programme at the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

"The fish themselves will recover, no question," said Kerry St Pe, who worked as south-east Louisiana's oil spill response co-ordinator for 25 years and is now director of a conservation programme for the state's estuaries. "But all the things that lead to the catching of the fish, the people that go out and physically trawl, may be damaged beyond repair."

Contact with oil is often fatal to fish and other marine organisms, and a spill on the scale of BP's is likely to have caused widespread damage, scientists have said. But they expect fish, especially smaller fish with short life cycles such as shrimp, to rebound rapidly.

Eric Hansen, owner of a now-closed shrimp dock at Port Sulphur, Louisiana, said, "My fear is the danger won't come so much from the oil in the marsh, it will come from the cleanup itself, which is going to be just as disruptive."

In previous spills, such as the 1979 Ixtoc-1 spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the Exxon Valdez spill in the Gulf of Alaska in 1989, fish for the most part recovered rapidly after a season's breathing space. Indeed, the pink salmon harvest in 1990 was the largest on record in the Prince William Sound, one of the areas hardest hit by the Valdez spill.

About a third of the Gulf's federal fishing areas have been closed along with up to 95% of states' coastal waters as a result of the spill, while the harvest has fallen sharply as many fishermen have joined the clean-up operation. The total shrimp catch in the region in May was 7.1 million pounds, 56% lower than in May 2009, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

That is having an effect on prices, pushing the cost of a pound of Gulf shrimp up by about 50% and opening opportunities for foreign competition. One Asian shrimp company said that it expected to benefit from the desire for "greater access to high-quality products".

That is precisely what US shrimpers fear most. The rise of farmed shrimp production from countries such as Indonesia and Thailand has pushed prices down globally, making it hard for US shrimpers to compete.

As prices for Gulf shrimp fell to the lowest on record late last year, the number of fishermen has been in steady decline. In Louisiana, the number of licensed commercial fishermen has fallen from nearly 30,000 in 1987 to fewer than 13,000 last year.

Although the annual value of the Gulf of Mexico catch is relatively minor at US$650 million, fishing is a crucial plank in the regional economy, supporting a seafood industry worth US$10.5 billion annually. The ripple effect of the spill is already being felt on the network of processors, equipment manufacturers and restaurants.

The region's leading oyster processor, AmeriPure, last week suspended operations because of supply shortages, and a top New Orleans chef is suing BP and other companies associated with the Deepwater Horizon disaster for punitive damages in a class action lawsuit.

The problem the industry faces now is the perception that its product is contaminated. Ewell Smith, director of the Louisiana Seafood Marketing Board, bemoans the constant stream of news reports on oiled wildlife. "Our brand is getting beaten up badly," he said.

Susan Spicer, chef-owner of the award-winning Bayona restaurant in New Orleans, said, "I have great confidence in my local vendors and the local products that I am serving, but I know my suppliers are suffering from the reality of a diminished supply and the misperception that all Gulf seafood is unsafe."

That is raising fears that the centuries-old fishing industry, and the culture that has grown up around it, could be irreparably damaged by the spill.