A Terrebonne Bay oil spill on the first day of Louisiana’s inshore shrimp season has taken a toll on some local fishermen, who say they received no warning of the incident until many hours after it occurred and as a result ended up with fouled nets and oiled boats.
Twelve years after the BP oil spill crippled Louisiana’s seafood industry, interviews with state officials, dock owners and fishermen indicate that a protocol for notifying members of the shrimp industry in a timely manner is not in place.
The Coast Guard said it was notified through the National Response Center at 3:01 a.m. Monday that a tank platform collapsed at the Hilcorp Caillou Island facility in Terrebonne Bay.
As of Wednesday morning, the Coast Guard reported that 6,200 feet of containment boom was being deployed. Hilcorp estimated that less than 14,000 gallons of crude had entered the water.
The reported amount was relatively small – a little more than the oil contained in two tanker trucks – but currents and tides carried the surface sheen to areas where boats were anchored or in the process of pulling nets to catch shrimp. Some shrimpers said they were not aware that oil had fouled their nets or parts of their catch until daylight Tuesday or later.
The Louisiana inshore fall shrimp season opened at 6 p.m. Monday.