If Gulf Fishermen Start Selling Seafood Again, Will Anyone Eat It?

For nearly four long months, many Gulf fishermen rested on their laurels. Of course this wasn't their choice — it's hard to go to work when your "office" is closed because there are millions of gallons of oil floating in it. Today, Louisiana's shrimpers may finally be hitting the seas again.

Louisiana's fall shrimp season kicks off today, the first commercial season since the Gulf oil disaster hit in April. While some fisheries are still closed in areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, more and more waters are opening as fish tested for the presence of oil continue to come back clean.

But as shrimpers take to the seas again, many have a major question on their minds: "If we haul in the shrimp, will anyone actually buy it?"

It's a legit concern, especially because consumer demand for Gulf seafood plummeted since the oil spill. After the disaster first hit in April, shrimp prices rose because so many fisheries shut down. But then about a month ago, demand for Gulf shrimp dropped as consumers shied away from the region's seafood. I guess you can't blame diners — it's hard to feel safe sucking down a Gulf oyster after we've been inundated with photos of struggling wildlife coated in shiny, black crude.

Despite the fact that Louisiana's shrimpers have been out of work for so long, many say they're taking some time before resuming harvests. Their hesitation makes total sense. Gulf seafood's suffered a PR nightmare with the oil spill. If even one person gets sick because of oil-contaminated shrimp, it could send Louisiana's $318-million-a-year seafood industry spiraling into oblivion. "Nobody wants to rush into this and then someone gets sick on the seafood and the first thing you know, no one wants to buy our seafood," Patrick Hue, a Louisiana shrimp fisherman, told Associated Press (AP) reporters.

Still, seafood testing seriously expanded beyond the original "sniff test," where olfactory experts would merely take a whiff of fish to sniff out the presence of oil (an exam that many criticized as too simplistic). According to a story on AOL News, now, once an area no longer visibly contains oil, experts conduct the sniff test. After fish earn passing scores on that, they're sent to state and federal labs, where scientists analyze samples for the presence of 12 cancer-causing compounds found in oil. If seafood passes all these tests, only then is an area reopened for harvesting. There is currently no test for analyzing whether fish contain chemicals from dispersants, though some scientists say that there is no evidence to suggest Corexit builds up in fish's flesh.

Whether these expanded tests and newly opened waters will prompt diners to purchase Gulf seafood remains to be seen. But what is clear is that ongoing research is needed. Even if fish are safe to eat right now, scientists agree that oil and chemical dispersants may cause more long-term effects in the marine food chain. Several federal agencies are conducting some of this research now, but let's place blame where blame is due — on BP. Sign our petition asking the oil company to fund a seafood safety program in Louisiana.

Photo credit: snowpea&bokchoi via Flickr