"Gulf oil spill" news and stories

Nearly eight months after the Deepwater Horizon rig blew out into the Gulf, the U.S. has filed suit with BP and other companies over the spill "in its effort to get billions of dollars for untold economic and environmental damage," reported the New York Times late yesterday. "Under the Clean Water Act alone, BP faces fines of up to $1,100 for each barrel of oil spilled."

And we hear that Gulf fishermen are up to new tricks themselves -- with a new oyster-harvesting method that may result in better (healthier) oysters.

Announced yesterday, by the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board (the organization behind Friends of the Fishermen, which had top chefs like Tom Colicchio on board), this new initiative "promises to increase production and open up entrepreneurial opportunities for oystermen."

Normally oysters are grown on reefs attached to the ocean floor, but Gulf oyster farmers are now looking into a not-so-new but new-to-the-Gulf, off-bottom approach where oysters are suspended on water columns and easily pulled to the surface in hunks. Oysters can then grow "in areas where a traditional bottom harvest is impossible" like over sand, notes the Board. It also "protects oysters from predators, provides a means to reduce fouling, increases oyster growth rates and allows for pruning, which results in oysters with fatter meat."

Last week the New Orleans Saints were dishing up classic Big Easy dishes in the White House kitchen to promote Gulf seafood and its safety. Today at 2:00 p.m., the Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, will host a live web chat to answer more questions about the seafood from the Gulf of Mexico.

"There's no doubt that the men and women of the Gulf who make their livelihood harvesting fish, shrimp, and oysters have been among those hardest hit by this spill. Enjoying some local seafood is one simple way Americans can support the people of the Gulf who have been battered by this spill."

Do you have a question for her? You can submit your questions ahead of time via Facebook or the White House webform.

Tune in this afternoon at 2 p.m. to WhiteHouse.gov/live to watch the live feed.

Related: New Orleans Saints Visit the White House Kitchen [VIDEO]

Read all of Slashfood's Gulf seafood coverage.

Located off Southeastern Louisiana, Barataria Bay is home to some of the most biologically diverse and productive waters in the Gulf of Mexico. Beginning in late May, state authorities began to close off specific areas to recreational and commercial fishing due to the appearance of oil as reported by shrimpers. Then on July 27th , a passing dredge barge pulled by the Pere Ana C. tugboat collided with an abandoned wellhead causing a geyser of oil to burst over the waters. Capped on August 1st, the oil well was eventually controlled, but the damage to Barataria Bay was done, and blue crab, one of the Gulf's most vital seafood harvests, is feeling the effects.

"Blue crabs are one of the most important components in the Gulf's food chain," Vince Guillory, a biologist manager of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries, told Slashfood. Over the past few weeks reports from researchers testing seafood in the Barataria area have shown these abundant crustaceans' larvae to exhibit characteristic orange specks caused by oil. Biologist Harriet Perry of the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory has been studying the samples and told the Associated Press, "In my 42 years of studying crabs I've never seen this."

In a city renowned for one of America's most distinct and vibrant food cultures, a way of life is in danger: One by one, New Orleans restaurants are beginning to drop oysters from their menus, and it's not a matter of food safety.

"I wish we could change people's perception about our seafood," Gerald Amato, owner of Mother's Restaurant lamented this morning. "We had one customer say the catfish tasted oily. Catfish is pond-raised! It's just perception," he stressed. "Seafood has never been tested more than it is now and we can't sell it if it's not safe."

It comes down to supply. Amato pointed to an empty pan in the kitchen next to another heaped with pink Gulf shrimp. "That's where the oysters would go. We're supposed to get a shipment in tomorrow," Amato said. His oysters are supplied from P&J Oyster Company, the longest running oyster house in America, who earlier this summer was forced to lay off the majority of its shuckers due to supply shortages for the first time in 134 years.

The big question: Is Gulf seafood safe? There seems to be many layers to this answer.

On the one hand, 35% of the Gulf waters have been deemed tainted and therefore have been closed to fishing, as last reported by The New York Times. This means that 65% of the waters are still open, and this area, officials say, is where the testing for food safety is being done; no tainted seafood has entered the market. So unless your purveyor illegally dove into red-taped waters to catch your dinner, trust that it's already gone through extensive testing.

But to the bigger question -- is the Gulf safe? Can its waters bounce back, its market survive? There's no telling yet how the spill will affect the Gulf's entire ecosystem, especially as the spill has yet to be capped, and the oil has affected different species in different ways. Oysters, the Times notes, can't move through oil and have been crippled against the spill, as evidenced by the last shucking of P&J's Oyster House.