Will the Oil Spill Affect Your Food?

by Tara Lohan · 2010-05-06 06:30:00 UTC
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How much oil is still gushing? How do we stop it? How far will it reach? And what will the extent of damages be? There are still so many unknowns -- and an important one is how this will affect our fisheries (and fishing communities). Is this going to change what's for dinner?

According to a story in USA Today, Elizabeth Weise writes that most of us will see little impact on the availability of seafood we normally find in the store. The oil already reaching the fingers of Louisiana's 8-million acre shoreline, will likely be devastating to local fishermen, shrimpers and oystermen, she writes, but the impact on what most of us elsewhere in the U.S. eat will be small. Louisiana produces only 1 percent of the country's seafood she writes -- 83 percent of our seafood is actually imported. For shrimp, only 4 percent comes from the state and 90 percent we get from other countries.

When it comes to oysters, the story is a little different, writes Weise. About 67 percent of our oysters come from the Gulf, 41 percent of that from Louisiana. There's also red snapper, nearly a quarter of which comes from Louisiana, and the same for blue crabs. Initial estimates of damages on fisheries are saying that it won't come close to the economic losses of the Valdez spill, but that won't be much consolation for Gulf fishing communities that are affected — and of course won't figure in the cultural losses either.

Besides from what we haul out of the water to eat, there's lots of other reasons to be concerned about the marine ecosystem. The New York Times reports that the Gulf is home to 10 species of threatened shark (which, hopefully aren't on any menus), 2 species of endangered turtle, as well as manatees, whales, dolphins and scores of other fish.

We can try to keep tabs on different species, but the Gulf is a complex ecosystem, with its parts linked together. The effects of how this plays out from the bottom of the food chain on up, may not be present for some time yet.

"It is not a question of whether all these species will be affected now. It is when," Larry Schweiger of the National Wildlife Federation told the New York Times.

Photo credit: keepwaddling1

Tara Lohan is a senior editor at AlterNet.org where she heads up the environment, water, and food sections. Her work has appeared on the websites of The Nation, Mother Jones, the Huffington Post and in Yes! Magazine.
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