State government in Louisiana, led by the ever-selfish Bobby Jindal, is sitting on their thumbs waiting for the feds to move. Feds are all talk and no action. BP was not prepared, but at least they have begun funding teams of local fisherman and volunteers from our 5 parish area.
The teams of local fisherman are going to set up oil contatinment booms along the coast and fill in other gaps in the marsh between booms with a cotton product.
Another issue that I heard from a local parish prez, is that 30 years ago between New Orleans and Houston, along the intercoastal waterway, there were enough booms warehoused to line the entire gulf coast from Naples, Florida to Brownsville, TX. Through the incident-free decades, the supply of booms and our emergency preparedness have dwindled, so we now do not have enough booms to cover the LA coast. The problem with the LA coastline is it is made up of fjord-like fingers that stretch into miles of marshland. This is what makes fishing here what it is, and why folks come here from around the globe to catch fish most of the year. Once it penetrates, the cleaning may take decades. Once the oyster beds get hit, it will definetely take a minimum of a decade (and many claiming way more than that) for a recovery.
A huge spill off of the coast of my dad's hometown in Spain, Porto do Son, resulted in years of cleanup. It is the Prestige Oil spill in case you want to look it up. The fishing industry there, which is among the largest in the world, took a massive hit. They began fishing 6 months after the fact, and I can't help but wonder if the recent rise in cancer rate in that area is related to these "formerly" contaminated sea beds.
I fear for the future of my state more today than I did when 80% of residences in New Orleans flooded in 2005........
The teams of local fisherman are going to set up oil contatinment booms along the coast and fill in other gaps in the marsh between booms with a cotton product.
Another issue that I heard from a local parish prez, is that 30 years ago between New Orleans and Houston, along the intercoastal waterway, there were enough booms warehoused to line the entire gulf coast from Naples, Florida to Brownsville, TX. Through the incident-free decades, the supply of booms and our emergency preparedness have dwindled, so we now do not have enough booms to cover the LA coast. The problem with the LA coastline is it is made up of fjord-like fingers that stretch into miles of marshland. This is what makes fishing here what it is, and why folks come here from around the globe to catch fish most of the year. Once it penetrates, the cleaning may take decades. Once the oyster beds get hit, it will definetely take a minimum of a decade (and many claiming way more than that) for a recovery.
A huge spill off of the coast of my dad's hometown in Spain, Porto do Son, resulted in years of cleanup. It is the Prestige Oil spill in case you want to look it up. The fishing industry there, which is among the largest in the world, took a massive hit. They began fishing 6 months after the fact, and I can't help but wonder if the recent rise in cancer rate in that area is related to these "formerly" contaminated sea beds.
I fear for the future of my state more today than I did when 80% of residences in New Orleans flooded in 2005........
