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Laissez les bons temps rouler! Eatocracy is in New Orleans this week getting ready for the second edition of our Secret Supper. We'll be sharing the people, purveyors and places that make this such a significant food town, and hope you'll join in with your questions, memories, restaurant suggestions and general bonhomie. New Orleans (CNN) - Without a blink of hesitation, Renee Fish grabbed a squirmy-raw oyster off an iced platter in New Orleans and sloshed it into her mouth. “It’s definitely the texture,” she said, her eyes lighting up at the experience of just having eaten a live mollusk from the Gulf of Mexico’s once-oily waters. “And they’re clean. They have a real silkiness. I try not to think about what other nasties could be in there.” On a neon-lit night at the Acme Oyster House, Fish and her husband went on to order two-dozen raw oysters, a half-dozen charbroiled oysters and two “oyster shooters,” which are essentially vodka shots with oysters staring up from the bottom. As for the oil spill: “It really didn’t even enter my mind.” Signs of the molluscan renaissance are all around the city: At Drago’s Seafood Restaurant, famous charbroiled oysters are back on the menu after being replaced by mussels; Antoine’s Restaurant, home of Oysters Rockefeller, started serving Louisiana oysters again this month; “oyster loaves” - massive, fried “po’ boy” sandwiches - are available all over town; and, after a hiatus, Jacques-Imo’s Cafe is plopping “Cajun croutons” - another version of fried oysters - on top of its spinach salads. “Right now, anywhere you go in New Orleans, you can have all the oysters you want,” said Tom Fitzmorris, a longtime restaurant critic here. “The price is a little higher. That’s the only evidence that this (oil disaster) ever happened.” But getting oysters and other seafood back onto New Orleans tables has been an epic struggle for oyster farmers and chefs. In many ways, it’s a struggle that still continues. Part of this has to do with the direct effects of the oil disaster. After oil started gushing in April from a BP well a mile beneath the surface of the ocean, the state of Louisiana came up with a plan to keep the oil as far from its fragile coast as possible: It would flush fresh water into estuaries and streams, pushing back against the oil. That move may have saved coastal marshes. But it had an unintended consequence: It probably killed many oysters, which thrive in water that is “brackish” - or part salty, part fresh. Oil also encroached on some oyster habitat, preventing harvest. That’s a big deal in Louisiana, which produces 40% of the nation’s oysters, more than any other state, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA closed much of the Gulf to fishing after oil spewed from the bottom of the ocean in April. Only about 1,000 square miles of federal waters remain closed after the oil disaster, according to NOAA, which is down from a peak closure in June of 88,500 square miles. Oysters and other fish could not be harvested from areas where the government feared oil would affect food safety or quality. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration took charge of this seafood safety effort, using chemical tests to check for seafood safety and also employing humans with highly trained noses to sniff for petroleum contamination of the food. With all of these precautions in place, any food that is legally harvested from the Gulf of Mexico is absolutely safe at this point, said Don Kraemer, an FDA seafood safety expert. “If they’re buying commercially harvested seafood, there’s no reason to be worried about the effects of the spill on the safety of that seafood,” Kraemer said in an interview. Some independent scientists, however, have criticized the FDA’s process, calling the smell tests junk science and saying the FDA isn’t testing for a wide enough range of contaminants. The FDA’s chemical tests look for only one line of potentially cancer-causing chemicals, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Others have citied what they see as alarming levels of compounds that can cause liver problems. Kraemer dismissed those claims, saying those lipids are found naturally in the fat of many fish and other seafood species - something he said the studies don’t account for. And he’s “dumbfounded” by criticism of the FDA’s sensory tests. “They truly were experts,” Kraemer said of the human smell testers, who were trained specifically on the scents of Gulf oil spill. “And quite frankly, the sensory test is even more sensitive than most of the chemical analyses. The human nose is an incredible sensory organ. It can pick up odors that are extremely faint when it’s properly trained.” Then there are the lingering long-term questions. No one knows for sure what effects the oil spill will have on fish, oyster and shrimp reproduction over coming years, said Julie Olson, assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Alabama. “If you look at previous oil spills that have gone on throughout history, while we’ve gained a lot of information, we’re still in our infancy in terms of understanding the long-term effects,” she said. The public seems to have ignored the nuance of this debate, choosing instead to translate images of oiled pelicans and dead dolphins into fear of food from the entire Gulf. A December survey by the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board found that more than seven in 10 people express “some level of concern” about eating seafood from the Gulf of Mexico after the oil disaster. In July, three months after the event started, more than 90% of people surveyed expressed such reluctance. The perception that Gulf seafood is unsafe is perhaps the single biggest challenge for the oyster industry, said Ewell Smith, executive director of the seafood marketing board. His group is using $30 million from BP, which has claimed responsibility for the disaster, to try to “rebrand” Gulf seafood as safe and delicious, he said. Surveys show that people who live far away from the Gulf Coast are more fearful of Gulf seafood than locals, but not everyone in New Orleans is willing to eat local seafood. “I just doesn’t feel safe,” said Kerry Seaton Stewart, owner of Willie Mae’s Scotch House, a fried chicken restaurant in New Orleans that stopped serving fish after the oil spill. “I was a big raw oyster eater - I just haven’t eaten it since,” she said. While many New Orleans restaurants again are offering oysters, others are so unsure of seafood supplies that they’re changing the menu by the day. This is true of Dooky Chase, a Cajun restaurant in New Orleans’ Treme neighborhood. After rebuilding from scratch after Hurricane Katrina, the restaurant had to adopt a paper menu after the oil spill, since high-quality seafood isn’t always available. “As the seafood industry goes, really, so do we,” said Edgar L. “Dooky” Chase Jr., the restaurant’s 82-year-old, second-generation owner, who squints as he talks, as if he’s in the middle of playing a trumpet solo. “It’s like a quarterback. It’s the quarterback of culinary food in New Orleans.” Chase said his restaurant is developing a new menu that will not lean as heavily on seafood, so that it can adapt to changing times. People who harvest and sell oysters seem to be hurting worse than those who serve them on white-tablecloth settings, where the effects of the disaster aren’t as obvious. On the streets of the city’s vibrant French Quarter, which once were made of crushed oyster shells, Al Sunseri still arrives at the headquarters of the P & J Oyster Co. at 3:30 each morning. He’s determined to keep business going even though P & J - the oldest oyster wholesaler in the county, in operation since 1876 - doesn’t have enough business to process oysters in its warehouses. The company headquarters sits in a chilled silence, pierced only by the hum of refrigerators that keep the few oysters the company has at a preservative 33 degrees Fahrenheit. “I kind of feel like a cork bobbing in the water,” Sunseri said of the limbo the oil spill has put him in. He comes to work every day just to keep moving - to try to start something. “It’s hard to change a leopard’s spots,” he said. Sunseri and other oyster wholesalers in Louisiana say they’re buying the majority of their oysters from Gulf Coast states other than Louisiana, because so many oysters were killed here and because some of the oyster grounds are still closed in this state. The Louisiana oyster harvest was down 50% in 2010, during the oil spill, compared with an average of the four previous years, according to data provided by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries. Wholesalers like P & J and Motivatit Seafood, out of Houma, Louisiana, say about half of the oysters they sell come from outside the state. Restaurants are passing along these non-Louisiana oysters to customers, sometimes with a disclaimer that they aren’t local, and sometimes not. For example, Fish, the vacationing taxidermist from Michigan who was slurping down raw oysters at a New Orleans oyster bar, may not have known that, according to restaurant staff, the oysters she was eating came from Texas. It didn’t matter much. Fish and her husband, on vacation for his 40th birthday, said they saw tar balls washing up on the beaches of Grand Isle, Louisiana, earlier that day, and they still weren’t at all concerned about the quality of oysters from that ocean. Fish said she trusted chefs to protect her from the bad stuff. And anyway, it’s the “gross factor” that attracts her to oysters in the first place. |
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the marketing issues are only slightly mitigated by the fact that the price effect for me is favorable.
STILL TOXIC
They tried to convince you that Illegal Immigrants were Good People too. Then we found out they make up 30% of our Prison population. Now they still try to convince us that they're all Good People. Don't you hate being treated like a Dumbass?
They can have my share. They're nothing I can't live without. How much did BP line the Inspectors pocket with. Who cares about America's Health when you can save Billions in compensation to Oystermen?
There was a non toxic Alternative to clean up the spill that has been successfully tested by BP after 10 months of spill damages. The Coast Guard sent a letter from headquarters stating to the FOSC to take action with OSE II, and the EPA, Lisa Jackson stopped the Coast Guard from allowing BP from implementing OSE II. In fact the EPA stopped the application of OSE II 11 times denying State Senators direct request for use of OSE II from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. La Department of environmental requested the use of OSE II as well, EPA's Sam Coleman denied their request without reason. Governor Jindal tried to get OSE II demonstrated on the Chandelier Islands on May 6, 2010, and the EPA stopped the Governor as well. The EPA in fact stopped the use of OSE II 11 times, without a reason given. Had the EPA allowed Governor Jindal to allow the demonstration of OSE II on May 6, 2010, it is possible a significant portion of the environmental damages, including the shorelines and the seafood industry would have been spared. The toxicty test comparison between OSE II and corexit really cannot be compared since with corexit, the label states it can cause red blood cells to burst, kidney, and liver problems if a chemical suit and respirator are not worn. OSE II in contrast can be used to wash your hands and is non toxic. The BP Deep Horizon spill has proven that corexit only sinks oil and causes the same oil to be addressed a second time when it comes ashore as under water plumes, or tar balls, while OSE II has a substantiated end point of converting oil to CO2 and water. See Coast Guard letter below
U. S. Department
of Homeland Security
United States
Coast Guard
Commanding Officer 1 Chelsea Street
U. S. Coast Guard New London, CT 06320
Research and Development Center Staff Symbol: Contracting Office
Phone: (860) 271-2807
July 10, 2010
OSEI Corporation
P.O. Box 515429
Dallas, TX 75251
Attn: Steven Pedigo, President/Owner
DEEPWATER HORIZON RESPONSE BAA HSCG32-10-R-R00019, TRACKING #2003954
We are pleased to inform you that the initial screening of your White Paper submitted under Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) HSCG32-10-R-R00019 has been completed. It has been determined that your White Paper submission has a potential for benefit to the spill response effort.
Your White Paper has been forwarded to the Deepwater Horizon Response Federal On-Scene Coordinator (FOSC) for further action under its authority. Subject to the constraints and needs of the ongoing oil spill response, you may be contacted by the FOSC or the responsible party.
We appreciate your interest in supporting the Deepwater Horizon Response effort.
Contracting Officer /s/
USCG R&D Center
.especially oysters.....
Staceyann C. Dolenti
I am a little scared to eat anything that comes from the Gulf right now. It will probably take me a few years to get over my fear.
Staceyann C. Dolenti
I just got back from visiting family down there and believe me the oysters are not back and wont be for years.There are some oysters but most are coming from Texas,Fla.and the Carolina's.Dont look for oysters,shrimp or crabs for years.Don't let anybody kid you,the Gulf is screwed.
Since CNN failed to do their duty, allow me to mention that Apple has now released the glorious, beautiful, and must-have iPhone on the Verizon network! If you don't have an iPhone or iPad yet, as CNN's tech savior, I command you to buy them! Apple products are all you need, people. CNN and I say so. Do as your told and get yours NOW!
This article is a nice bit of spin but you couldn't pay me to eat anything coming out of the Gulf right now. And i have lived in NOLA and loved Gulf seafood. People are becoming seriously ill and dying just from breathing in all the chemical vapors coming off the water. Eat the seafood? Uh, no, I don't think so.
Lot's of happy talk goin' on there. Does anyone in their right and reality based mind think that just because the FDA says its all o.k. that it is? Talk to the fishermen in Alaska doomed by the Exxon Valdez spill. 200 million gallons of crude in these coastal fisheries is without a doubt going to have a major impact, not only on the the oysters themselves, but the people that eat them... Are you soooooooo stupid to think that BP and government people aren't behind a pr campaign to simply tells us... oh, everything's o.k. folks, nothing to see here, let's just all us folks get back to touristing and eatin' that great gulf food! Stupid is as stupid does, said Forrest "bubba" Gump. People... its all about the money..... don't you get it?????????
How nice for your sh*t for brains corpro-fascist right-wingers, to just say, oh, everything's o.k., drill, baby, drill....
I am just going to love photographing your waterfront beach home covered in crude in the next spill, and do the chant, drill, baby, drill....
It will happen............
Just polished off a couple of dozen raw
They're back... and filled with crude oil.
IT doesn't matter if they didn't harvest the Oysters from under the oil rig or not. Oysters FILTER the water so ANYTHING in the water goes THOUGH them and by slandering somebody for being a conservative your not a very good person.
It's not ignorance, just pure stupidity for Fish to be eating those oysters!
My family just closed an oyster bar due to this...a few months too early I guess...
Oh goody!! Great news!!! I also heard that gulf oysters can now be used as fat lighter for your fireplace, or as a substitue for tiki lamp oil, or can even be used to pack wheel bearings!! Added benefit!!
hmmm. I remember all the histrionics at the time, all the doomsdayers shouting that the gulf would NEVER recover.
I don't hear the media saying anything and I don't hear any locals feeling confident about it's recovery. Just like I don't hear anybody from Exxon talking about the oil spill in Alaska either.
I have tried oysters from waters other than the Gulf of Mexico, and they do not begin to compare. My husband and I just made one of our frequent visits to South Louisiana, and I ate as many oysters on-the-half-shell as I could, along with every other wonderful item of cajun and/or creole food I could stuff into my pie hole. Love the Colorado climate and scenery, but the food does not begin to compare!
"I have tried oysters from waters other than the Gulf of Mexico, and they do not begin to compare"
LOL That's probably because their not laced with the petroleum and dispersants.
Personally, Being from New England I love Seafood, especially Oysters. Anything from the Gulf of Maine or the North Atlantic, I'll be avoiding the Gulf coast, for at least a couple of decades.
No, Aunt Linda, THEY'RE saltier and have a better texture–Gulf oysters, that is. I made that observation originally long before the oil spill. The oysters (and other seafood) from the Gulf are back to their yummy goodness.
..demogal...
You go right ahead and enjoy. My share is yours as well.
You should try the small, richly tasty oysters that grow wild among the mangroves in the Caribbean if you ever swing that way, a little lime juice or hot sauce...exquisite.
You are doing a great job telling story of the food of Louisiana and New Orleans. I wish that you would stop by the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, where we are documenting this food culture every day.
anybody who thinks Gulf seafood is safe to eat needs to watch the docmentary "Black Wave", about the Exxon Valdez disaster, and watch this 8-minute video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rAQ7PACKkg
this is not uncommon down there. yes, they are still spraying Corexit, as well as other materials like phosphorus, iron, and copper to feed the synthetic bacteria which are creating foreign algal blooms in cold cold February. Your cognitive dissonance may tell you otherwise, as your heart wants to believe your government has your best interest at heart, bu t it doesn't. Real people are sick and dying from the Corexit they 'aren't' spraying ... including me and several of my friends. I'm still homeless because of the spill, waiting for them to stop spraying Corexit so I can go back to NOLA. I personally know of one ship's captain that was changing boom for BP who is dead now, whose family settled out of court with a non-disclosure agreement with the company. Who knows how many people have actually died so far from this disaster. It can only be seen as a slow-kill method of population control in the name of continuing profits, at this point.
It's so weird to be fighting a war with one's own corporate government, on one's own soil, while the other side pretends it's not happening, and the mainstream media goes along with it all. Whoever wrote this article, I hope you can sleep at night. Do some more research before encouraging your readers to ingest poison. "Exactly *how much* gasoline is safe to put in my baby formula?" Etc.
I'm sure these oysters have not been tested for VOCs and PAHs – cancer-causing agents invisible to the human nose. The whole "smell test" thing is BS, just like the "top hat," "top kill," and "junk shot" ... cutesy little names; "ponies and balloons" for the consumer-serf. The FDA, USDA, EPA, NOAA, DEQ, and everyone else are in on this, to protect their own asses as well as to keep the economy from crashing. For example, 85% of Alabama's income comes from that one tiny swath of poisoned beach. Ask yourselves why Halliburton bought the world's largest oil spill cleanup company 11 days before the well blew, and why Goldman Sachs shorted their BP stock, and why even Tony Hayward sold off 1/3 of his shares. HmmmMMMM.
Poor, poor enviroscum. The world didn't end, did it?
Oilsters
LMAOROFL!
[Hey! I can love the environment AND have a sense of humor/sarcasm, too!]
[;-ppppppppppp
Can be used as an alternate fuel source.
Don't smoke while eating them.
Of course the oysters came back. Mother Nature is pretty tough. Example, the large amount of marine life that returned to the Bikini Atoll after the atomic tests in the late 40's and 50's.
Yes and the life that came back so very quickly after Mount St. Helens exploded, and anyone who has been to Nagisaki would see this as well. I pray these diasters don't happen but am happy to hear that the folks there in the Gulf seeing their lves coming back together.
HOW MUCH IS THE OYSTER INDUSTRY PAYING CNN?????
enough to run this article egging on Gulf Coast oyster consumption that flies in the face of reason, science and common sense.
What good is testing for oil in the oysters when the banned Haliburton chemical dispersant that BP used is two hundreds times more toxic than the oil. It's banned all over the world (except in the U.S. thanks Dick Cheney having the backs of the oil companies) because it causes liver cancer. No effing way am I touching any Gulf Coast seafood for the next twenty years (about the time large number of cancers deaths will show up).
Yeah, It's not as if they test every batch that comes in anyway.
Well if there is pesticide in our food, what's a little oil and toxin in oyster. It's not like you eat the oyster EVERY single day.
You couldn't pay me enough to eat any seafood from the gulf.....
This a great example of Denial in public policy. Rather than make BP Pay for the economic damage the oil spill has caused to the Gulf Coast Fishing Industry, We'll just pretend it never happened, and keep on fishing. 10 years down the road we'll see a spike in cancer rates. 20 years down the road we'll have a variety of studies providing a link to seafood consumption, and others that show no such link. The truth of the matter is that once this stuff gets into the food supply, it's virtually impossible to link long-term health problems with exposure, people often have no idea where their seafood comes from. BP is very happy about this.
I love oysters. So when I was vacationing in Clearwater, FL last November, on the Gulf of Mexico, I ordered them twice. They were delicious and very fresh tasting at restaurant # 1. At restaurant #2 I got a platter of petrolium – literally I couldn't believe how oily they tasted and stopped after the first few bites – I really thought I was going to get sick – nothing happened – just a little stomach upset.
That's exactly the problem. It was hit or miss with Ocean Ecosystems. I'm sure there are some healthy patches of ocean left. But their so much Petroleum and dispersant down there, you can never be sure.
Well I’ll certainly think twice next time…..is crab okay??!! I ate a lot of that too!
Aunt Linda: if you eat the seafood, oil & the detergent cleaner, you should be fine! The cleaner takes care of the oil and your body uses the nutrient from the oyster! All's Well!
America Rocks: It is not ok to have crabs (didn't we cover this on a blog already?). Once you get 'em, you need to give them away quickly!
Look at these backwoods Billybobs eating oysters out of that dump, right after an oil spill and subsequent dumping of dispersion chemicals in the same area. LOL crazy swamp dwellers
Well if the FDA says they are ok, then it must be alright. They would never purposely clear anything that could be harmful for the public, right?
Really –you trust the FDA? The same FDA that repeatedly approves drugs that cause heart attacks and strokes and eventually have to be taken off the market…???
Sarcasm alert.
Yes, the good old FDA! Can you say VIOXX or BEXTRA??!! Look, we NEED an organization like the FDA, but currently, there is way too much conflict of interest there, given the fact that many board members and contributors are ex BIG PHARMA EXECS! The FDA needs a top to bottom purging, and IMPARTIAL SCIENTISTS working there, not paid off executives who have vested interests!
Give them cake instead
Yes, Let them Eat cake! That pretty much sums up BP's response to the Gulf Coast fishing industry.
Aunt Linda.....so glad someone caught the sarcasm. You go girl!
What oil? What Coexit? What what are you talking about.....that was so last year.....Was there some kinda spill somewhere? uh?
Don't you know oil is harmless. Whaddya think french fries are cooked in?
Yuck, yuck, yuck. That is all I have to say. I would never, ever eat an oyster from that area. Too risky. Who knows how contaminated they are.
I tried oysters on the half-shell once and wasn't told not to chew 'em. Ick. I tried 'em a second time in oyster dressing/stuffing and didn't care for them then either. Someday I'll give 'em another shot in something else. But for now, I don't eat 'em .... BUT ....
.... I don't see any problem with someone eating whatever makes them happy & healthy. Sounds like the oysters in this story are safe enough to eat and I couldn't be happier for all the oyster-lovers! This means that the environment is also coming back and THAT is the best news of all!!
Ah, Nothing like the flavor of Oysters heightened by the finest Gulf of Mexico Petroleum and just a dash of 2-butoxyethanol. They should be paired with a nice Shiraz with "asphalt notes"
My guess is that the Gulf oysters people are eating are not contaminated with oil. Oil floats, so does corexit. The water the oysters are filtering may contain trace amounts of oil, but the vast majority of oil is on the surface of the ocean. My bigger concern is where are the underwater plumes of oil? Not everything went to the surface in the depths of the Gulf.
The latest science on that seems to disagree with you. International researchers have found evidence of a thick blanket of "Petroleum sludge"on the ocean floor. http://theweek.com/article/index/207088/did-the-bp-spill-kill-the-gulf-sea-floor
Hey...NotBP...
You "guess" just isn't good enough for anyone to gamble with their health.
Both chemicals may only exist on the surface, but "ersters" are shallow-water creatures. If there are still chemicals floating around out there, they are either floating with the oysters, or the chems are being controlled over deeper waters where the fishing holes & oyster beds are not.
You liberals are a bunch of baby's. A little oil and corexit never hurt anybody.
I'd eat these oysters and any fish out of the gulf without hesitation.
LOL that had better be sarcasm.
This article is as ridiculous as saying the horses under three years died last year but this year we have a full field for the Kentucky Derby (a race for 3 year olds). If half the oysters had been wiped out as claimed, the spats (babies) take up to three years to develop into full-sized, harvestable oysters to replace them. And if so many adults had been wiped out, it would take time to build up a decent spat population.
I'm not eating anything from that chemical cesspool. Millions of gallons of petrochems and dispersents .. and BP wont' say what's in the dispersants ....
They're a proprietary blend of the finest ingredients New Jersey chemical plants have to offer...
In other News: Cancer rates reach an all-time record.
It feels so good to be able to speak out LOL
I live by Mobile bay and I just got home a few minutes ago, I went to see if there was anyone fishing......I seen a couple of fellas passing a bottle around.......NO one was fishing,. But I just wish I could post a really good picture of what I did see........As a local I can appreciate them wanting to get their tourists back but if they are going to lie to them what are they going to do next year? I am sure they will pul my post, msn always did.....The truth hurts
Last time I was at Gulf Shores they advised people to only stay an hour........and they still charged us to park and pat through their solar powered debit machine :) There is an oil ring around the bay. If you dont see it just scratch the sand away along the aters edge...........Has BP donbe good by us? yes they have. But the oil is still there........Ya all bring your babies and come swim in it., There wil be discount rates at the condos to be sure...:)
I honestly know nothing about the oysters cause I aint biting and I always loved my oysters, I even raked oysters a few years.......Until Game and Fish got to hard to deal with,. they was like on a mission to destroy the local fisherman
Do we live by the same bay? I see people fishing in Mobile Bay almost every time I'm by it (which, I'll admit, isn't that often, but I do see it). Metro Mobile is lucky because much of the oil didn't get into the bay (some did, but not a lot). Time will tell the truth. It's deplorable that BP's, Halliburton's, Transocean's, and the government's oversight caused this disaster to happen, and I'm very angry about the use of Corexit dispersant (way worse than the oil itself–and I do believe we're being lied to about the amount used and how it caused oil to settle on the Gulf floor), but I love the Gulf Coast and live only once. Our beautiful Gulf and it's back bays and bayous are resiliant. I don't eat seafood that often–it can get expensive and some of it is seasonal–but I will continue to eat oysters, shrimp, crab, and fish from these waters. The fertilizer waste that flows daily down the Mississippi River into the Gulf is more dangerous to sea life than the spill, sadly.
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19914
BP is gassing Gulf Coast residents with poisonous Benzene and Corexit dispersants at dangerously high levels in the largest U.S. domestic military operation to date. The military and FEMA are engaged in Emergency Plans for 36 urban areas from Texas to Florida due to the unstoppable Gulf oil volcano the size of Mt. Everest, as WMR reports, indicating evacuations. Some people are advised to relocate now. (See Parts III and IV)
Satellite imagery that Obama's administration withheld shows "under the gaping chasm spewing oil at an ever-alarming rate is a cavern estimated to be around the size of Mount Everest. This information has been given an almost national security-level classification to keep it from the public," writes Wayne Madsen.
Human suffering in the Gulf is increasing from the world's latest and largest toxic oil kill as BP lies and government remains silent about the human health risks. Most immediately damaging of the operation's withheld information pertains to toxins breathed since the explosion.
Southerners reporting illnesses with symptoms reflecting Benzene and Corexit poisoning have had to face some leaders suggesting the cause to be mental illness, "stress", while others, such as BP chief Tony Hayward, blamed the illness on rotten food.
Some of the oyster fields still haven't come back from Katrina ....look it all up people.
just remember that the FDA doesn't have a single assay to tst for heavy metals, or the dispersant, Corexit.
DON'T EAT THIS FOOD UNLESS YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH.
on second thought, it's a brilliant form of population control...
Of course, many from the Gulf region will ignorantly tell you "the seafood is safe- it's fine."! They speak out of desperation to get things 'back to normal', sheer ignorance, or both. Folks, the fact is that cancerous, chemical dispersants (and oil) have contaminated much of the seafood in that region now, and for years to come. If this had happened in Europe, the populations there would be up in arms and ultra vocal about consuming the tainted seafood. It is shocking, but not surprising, that hordes of gullible, simpleton Americans (after all, we are great deniers of truths like Evolution, The Holocaust, and AIDS) believe that the Gulf seafood is mostly safe! BP's public relations machine will of course tell you it is, and ditto the FDA (which is a JOKE these days, given the major conflict of interest and big money influence it has). Big money/corporations in the good old USA are known to lie and twist the truth in order to save their image and miminize financial liability and damage! Wake up people!
well said.
People have personal responsibility for their own health. I choose not to take the risk with my family's health. I don't know if they're really safe and since I do not 'need' to eat them, I'll make alternate choices.
I love oysters but I will never eat anything from the Gulf of Mexico for a very long time.
Due yew reed watt yore righting b4 yoo poast?
"I will never eat ..... for a very long time."
"Never" IS in fact a VERY long time. KUTGW!
For hundreds of thousands of years, "natural" oil has erupted from the floor of the Gulf, in many locations. Obviously the man-made spill was much worse than this...at least in one major area. Oil is a hydrocarbon that exists in nature. By definition it is biodegradable. (But that doesn't mean it isn't persistant, because it is).
A few meals of oysters from the Gulf/month will not do you or myself any harm. I don't think I'd eat them every day, nor would I eat raw oysters. (My daughter loves them!)
I'm glad that the oysters have come back. Probably next year more people will be willing to eat them.
Sorry buddy,...but not even next year....I don't care what any agency, company or anybody says. You can have my share.
A few barrels worth of oil seeping out of the ocean floor every now and then is in now way comparable to the magnitude of the BP spill. Not to mention that synthetic Dispersants far more toxic and persisitent than petroleum itself don't seep out of the ocean floor on their own accord. No oysters will not likely do you immediately visible harm, neither will smoking a pack of cigarrettes.
The true voice of reason! Thank you for speaking up.
http://theintelhub.com/2010/06/17/nalco-linked-to-goldman-sachs-and-citigroup-among-others/
Nalco linked to Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, among others
–>14 Comments
(AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)
The Intel Hub
While evacuations may not take place in the very near future, one has to expect some sort of evacuation before the end of summer. The people of the Gulf simply cannot continue to breath in these chemicals without profound repercussions. Most likely, the government will wait until the very last minute, possibly until after a hurricane, to evacuate the coast. Contrary to the story now being run by CBS, a hurricane will have catastrophic consequences on the oil inflicted areas..
Dont worry theyre perfectly safe.......uuhhhh ga gag, help me, my left arm is numb..i cant swalltre ,, gasp.
Side Note For anybody interested (please don’t be offended)
After doing some research on the company behind Corexit® Nalco Company, a public trade company. The first name that comes across the screen is Al Gore – Generation Investment Management, yes the same Al Gore that “invented the Internet” and got a Nobel peace price for his Global Warming fluff in 2007. Just goes to show that sometimes you have to get dirt to make a little money even if you are an environmentalist.
As of June 30, 2010, funds at Generation Investment Management, founded by Al Gore and David Blood, were valued at $2.6 billion.
Corexit claims will be a big deal in the years going forward after BP exposed people with the dispersant Corexit 9500.
Almost as interesting as the article is this conversation going on after. I just arrived in New Orleans last week and putting together the New Orleans section of my website. http://www.oystergeek.com check it out. If I could get folks to be this passionate about oysters towards giving me information to build my site better. Anyhow its fun check it out.
http://bp-claim.com/corexi-why-people-are-getting-sic/
Corexit can enter the body though contaminated seafood
Unfortunately there is another way for the Corexit to enter you body and its true seafood that has been contaminated with corexit, I know that its not great news for the fishmen out there that are reading this but I have to keep it real and tell people about the problems coming ahead. The FDA are testing for this since August 13 2010 and according to Nalco Company Corexit biodegrades in 28 days but it is a way to get it in your system. FDA has said that seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is safe to eat.
Tar balls washed up on Grand Isle beaches before the BP blowout/spill and occur naturally from oil seeps in the sea floor of the Gulf of Mexico. Most oysters are harvested/caught in inland waters in Louisiana; the inland waters (oyster bed areas) were not all polluted by the BP spill. If you want to be scared of oil/petroleum go ahead, it is found in everything, EVERYTHING, you eat, drink, wear, touch, drive or live in. i.e. drugs, paints, solvents, fertilizers, foods (yes, foods), plastics, fuels, fabrics, lubricants, resins, soaps, disinfectants, chlorides, insecticides and the list goes on and on and on...
I don't care until Sarah Palin says something about it. Come on CNN, can we have more Palin stories instead? I am dying to hear more rantings of that political nobody!
"...oysters stage come back....".........pffttt..... more like, "Money first, food safety second"......
Could they not have found someone to interview who wasn't named Fish – and never mind that she was a taxidermist. . .
Well at least the fry oil people will not be selling much to fry the oysters – they come all oiled up and ready to fry!!!!
Hahaha, love the caption on the CNN homepage. "Tickling tastebuds..." Haha, that sure is the case, tickling them with carcinogens and cancer!!! Oil is delicious this time of year, LoL. Puh-leaze.
Probably a little pocket money involved there from BP eh?
I cannot believe that any of these people would risk our young peoples lives over oil and money..........This is disgusting and Obongo is helping to cover it up?
Friends from the area tell me that they still see oil on some fresh seafood. They tell me that they wouldn't, and don't eat it anymore. It's very sad.
You'd lose that bet.
I am betting that the last 10 posts were the same person....
I bet you are right. I bet that person is so stupid that they don't know sheep shit from cotton seed.
I can only speak for myself, at least one of them wasn't. Any individual with more than a room temperature IQ fully understands the environmental implications of such a spill & how it affects filter feeders like Oysters. I'm a mechanic by trade, I fully understand what it feels like to have oily, greasy shit on my hands. When I put my clean hands in Florida's gulf coast waters I feel a very greasy, slimy,oily texture to the water. And I've only gone as far west as St. George Island. I can only imagine how bad it gets further west. The spill in the gulf has wrecked the gulf coast & just because you are not seeing oil on the water anymore that does not indicate the damage yet to be realized, only your short sighted right winged ignorance. Be warned folks, this tragedy is yet to be fully realized.
I totally understand you, I live in Anchorage, Ak and 20 years after the Exon Valdeze spill we are still realing from that disaster.
Sounds like a lot of really dumb people. You want to eat anything that grew in that water – you are nuts. Then you'll want to sue somebody when you get sick – die.
This has nothing to do with political party. Just stupid.
yeah only 10 months after your seafood has been feasting on corexit saturated waters, you all just go ahead & eat that tainted catch. Ignorance is bliss, but what are you all going to do in 5 years or less when your massive health issues arise? Will anyone of you be smart enough to think back to those oysters you so jubilantly sucked down only 10 months after the waters that those oysters came from were poisoned with raw crude & corexit? There is no way those catches are clean & the FDA & whoever is saying they are is full of it. I'm not buying any of that BS that the catches are clean. Eat at your own risk. I think you are all f'in nuts to be eating anything out of the gulf waters.
eat em' up morons! hahaha! lmfao @ how dumb Americans are. "billionaires run amok" is our new national anthem.
We'll see what people are saying a few years down the road when cancer rates skyrocket.
And we had to endure more liberal whining and complaining that the environment would be ruined for hundreds of years. Perfect example of crazy tree huggers with no clue. Lets drill for more oil baby.
i for one will not eat seafood from the gulf. I don't need experts to tell me what is good and what isn't. God gave me this wondful thing called "common sense."
After taht spill – nothing from that water is safe to eat.
Yummmm.......oysters with crude oil. Sounds so tasty and healthy. Oh...that's right....all those MILLIONS and MILLIONS of gallons of crude oil are gone....all clean and fresh again......a miracle....and to think we were worried that all those millions of gallons would have some effect on all the living things in those polluted waters.....we were so silly!
Oh NO....you mean the enviro MENTAL folks were wrong...that all life in the Gulf didn't die??? Im shocked.....LOL
bunch of fools that WANT high oil prices so they can sell solar panels and chop up birds with wind generators!
I'm slobbering reading this story. I need some oysters!
I LOVE.. LOVE.. LOVE oysters but will never again eat one from the gulf as long as I live.. That goes for any sea food from that area of the world..
Good Old Atlantic Sea Food for me from now on..
Oysters seem to be like Bill... er, I mean roaches. No matter what you do, they keep coming back.
A bigger issue than the oil spill has been the invasion of oyster drills that were once an atlantic-only predator. These nasty little snails have been decimating oyster populations in the gulf.
Sorry! Not front-page news... that would cofuse people. :p
If, as Professor Olson states, "no one knows for sure what effects the oil spill will have on fish, oyster and shrimp reproduction over coming years," then you cannot assess damages to BP for FUTURE losses, since the Fishermen have the burden of proving there future losses by a preponderance of evidence. No current proof of future losses, no recovery. Now, we all know that the lawyers representing the fishermen will find some "expert" to opine on the catastrophic losses of these poor souls. Not taking a side on the matter, just telling it as it is.
Right... they'll opine while BP delays. When you only present one side, youre implicity taking one.
I love how people apply local (read Human) time-scales to ecological events that require years to emerge. Yes, bacteria will eat the oil, and part of the -lysis to eat it, they'll consume Oxygen. Anyone who claims to KNOW how that will turn out at this point is simply a fool, or trying to sell you oysters. On the bright side, everyone who's chomping that seafood is basically testing the water for the rest of us: Thanks human guinea pigs!
Bivalves eat by filtering water, which means they filter out and concentrate toxins. Why would anyone eat oyster gathered in a spill area?
Marketing, and news like this. Everyone doesn't have access to the kind of information you seem to be aware of, and when their "trusted" news source goes 'Reader's Digest' on them, what chance do they have?
Same reason I refuse to eat liver. That is where all the bad stuff goes, yet people say they love it.
*sniffle* People who understand biology! Yes indeed, and people forget that eating liver is not abuot the joy of liver... it was what you got when you were dirt-poor. Look at Haggis... it even includes the LUNGS, which are essentially non-nutritive. Try to explain to people that the delicacy of today was the poor-man's food of yesterday, and you get blank stares. You're making an intelligent point in a stupid world.
Not according to sister site TIME:,
Taste of America, Oyster Apocalypse? Truth About Bivalve Obliteration,
By Josh Ozersky Friday, Feb. 11, 2011
According to a study published in the February issue of BioScience, 85% percent of the world's native oyster reefs have been destroyed. Three-quarters of the wild oysters left in the world, the study says, now live in North America — and they aren't all doing that great, either.
Oyster don't squirm.
I'm hearing PETA is going to march into action wearing nothing but oyster shorts.
Eat the poison, everyone. Just shut up and eat it. Everything is normal. And you thought there was an environmental disaster, silly children.
We will. Again do you have any idea how much oil leaks out naturally from the floor of the gulf? It shows you how little we influence what is around us. Nature has things to eat the oil. remember oil is organic.
So is Cyanide... your point? You may want to consider the surfactants that were dumped as the toxins he's reerring to as well. Still, my view is eat up, you're literally volunteering to be part of a longitudenal study about the health effects. I'm thrilled that so many human volunteers are stepping up, but in the meantime I'll pas on filter-feeders from the Gulf. Y'all don't go gettin' dee caner now, y'hear? :)
No thanks, I like my Oysters with Olive Oil, not crude. I'll stick to the Oregon\Washington variety.
Where I live in L.A., App Bay oysters are the only ones available most of the time. On one occasion however, when App Bay was closed from pollution we got Louisiana oysters. They were much better than the App Bay oysters. The huge west coast oysters are not nearly as good as either gulf oyster.
Nature has it's way. Billions spent on studies that were wrong. USA bankrupt and we continue to do studies that serve no purpose.
Funny, just a few days ago (maybe late last week), CNN ran a story talking about how worldwide the oyster/mollusk population was way down and was somewhat worrisome.
I guess as long as it still shows up on your plate there is nothing to worry about, right?
Enviromentalist never let facts get in the way of their gloom and doom.
Oh great! The poor oysters survive the disastrous oil spill only to be killed and eaten by humans! I don't know how people can eat those slimy things anyway! To each is own, I guess.
How much, CNN? Was it 1 MIllion or 2 million that BP paid you to run this story>
Can't be safe. Oysters grow larger by eating algae and plankton. I am positive that the algae and plankton in the Gulf is still contaminated, and is passing it onto those oysters. I love them, but I don't want anything coming out of the Gulf for a long while.
CNN is getting just as bad as FOX News.. WHY with everything going on is THIS front page news??? JUNK MEDIA at its finest........... keep eating them oysters!
Don't worry it's just oil, add that to the dead zone from farm fertilizers and you will have lots of great tasting 3 eyed fish to go with your black gold oysters.
I swore I read an article from CNN just 2 days ago that was speaking about the diminishing habitat of oysters and how wild oysters are practically gone- now the oyster coucil is pushing article on how we should be swilling them down? WTF?
Wow, so I guess Chicken Little (government run media) was wrong again??? The world didn't come to an end????
Makes you wonder what else they're wrong about, doesn't it? Where ever America went, tell her to come home, please!
Well oil is still in Plaqumine parish. It's not finished being cleaned up.
They are starting a 10 yr health study to cover 100,000 people down here.
They are still Spraying Corexit so that you can't See the problem oil
The govt n media are so run by big money.
I wish we could rise up like Egypt n Outlaw lobbyist n start over with new politicians that are not just puppets
Nice story, but I don't think I'd eat them. They're still seeing ramifications from the Exxon Valdez oil spill years later.
That's because the Valdez spill was of refined oil. That oil will be around for many decades.
The spill in the Gulf was of crude oil. Crude oil is much easier to absorb & clean-up than is refined oil. There are already enzymes in nature's waters that have been eating & absorbing the seepage coming up from the seabeds for millennia.
You have to be INSANE to eat anything culled from the Gulf region! If it's not the oil or oil residues in the seafood that are dangerous (i.e. cancerous, etc.), it is the poisonous chemical DISPERSANTS used, that are still in the Gulf seafood, and that will continue to be in the seafood probably for decades to come! STAY AWAY from all seafood obtained from the Gulf people!
I'm totally with you on this.
Um I eat my gulf seafood. We all are addicted to it. The fish are fine.
Yes Corexit sucks but it's amazing what marine life can process.
Please eat our Louisiana n Gulf coast seafood. A bunch of it does not come from the contaminated gulf. We have tons of bayous n areas that NEVER touched oil
bioconcentration, enjoy the cancer
If you sit around worrying about what carcinogens may or may not be in your food, you'll starve to death.
OK, so why are people still getting sick down there and what happened to all the oil??? Do they expect us
to believe this all just went away somewhere? http://www.examiner.com/political-spin-in-national/gulf-oil-spill-health-update-hundreds-of-people-get-sick-after-swimming-gulf Did this all miraculously clean itself up in 6 months???
People are getting sick and the seafood that lives in the water is OK????
Yeah right...
We are sick because they are STILL spraying Corexit.
The oysters filter it out better than my lungs
Not really a disaster after all, huh. F#@*&ing hippies.
Ah, American mass news media. There are protests rocking the Middle East which could alter the balance of power, affect the lives of millions and have implications around the world for years to come, and while it is on the front page, CNN's MAIN headline is:
"Oysters stage a comeback"
No, really. Oysters. Never change, CNN
I know, it's pretty pathetic that we have to switch to international news to find out about anything in Iran, Afganistan, and Africa. CNN keep yourself honest and report some real news, not the crap that helps out your lobby buddies.
I could not have said it better.......... thanks
Yeah, that's awful. You have to actually click the international edition link to get international news and the US edition link to get US news. How completely unconscionable.
Does anybody even know that the FDA has guidelines on "acceptable amouts of trace feces" that are allowed for human consumption. Not to mention toxins, carcinogens, bacteria that they say is ok for you to eat. Now if your worrying about a little petrol in your oysters, isnt that better than eating rat poo or e.coli infested eggs???
Too bad we didn't listen to people like Sarah Palin who told us that drilling close to the shore is much safer because we can contain the area and complete clean up in a matter of days. Nope, can't do that, gotta try to drill a mile under water in the middle of the gulf coast where a spill can cause years of damage.
If you know your Chicago politics, then you can ponder how and why this spill really happened.
Not surprised, they filter the water. Seems like if they are filtering more they would grow faster, Oyster Farms on Cape love having them in the Inlets of the marshes, so they are always getting moving water to filter through. I'm not an oyster farmer, but I do know that is why they can get town/state money to farm, they're providing a service to the marshes by "cleaning" the water.
The problem people is... We Flooded the oyster marshes near the gulf to keep the Oil from moving more into Lake Ponchatrain n more.
The Flooded beds are dead.
However we have tons of oyster beds further away from the Gulf that are thriving and never touched oil...
M, you're correct. BP didn't kill Louisiana Oysters, our dopey governor did.
Just a note to the author: people don't eat LIVE oysters. We aren't Klingon's!
Oysters are considered the healthiest when eaten raw on the half shell
Yuck, I'd hate to eat them if they were dead.
Wait, I thought the oil spill killed everything, for a hundred years. According to the liberal part of the population, drilling for oil for Americans and buildimng refineries, is evil, that's why the president stopped it. Ah yet again another farce like the "hole in the ozone", "global warming", et.
the best oysters in the world are from apalachicola bay and we never stopped eating them here. oil didn't come this far. so we've been eating all the ones you wouldn't buy because you thot they were contaminated. ha ha suckas!
Where I live in L.A., Appalachicola oysters are the only ones available most of the time. On one occasion however, when App Bay was closed from pollution we got Louisiana oysters. They were much better than the App Bay oysters. The huge west coast oysters are not nearly as good as either gulf oyster.
Appalachicola oysters are just as tasty. And of course they're being threatened by the ongoing "water wars" among Georgia (metro Atlanta), Alabama, and Florida. Gulf Coast seafood = Gulf Coast seafood. Period.
They are the best. There are good ones comming from the Rappahanock region of Chesapeake Bay, but they're a distant second.
The opening paragraph reads like something from a high school kid's creative writing assignment.
Wait till a windmill burns up and contaminates your lobster bed.
For a good time try a Rocky Mountain Oyster, you'll have a ball!
UGH! UHG! UGH!
I'll switch to Maine Lobster.
Keep up with the lies about the oil spill. Do any of you know how much oil naturaly leaks in the gulf? That is why those organism live there in the first place. Keep drinking the koolaid. Man better yet Americans are destoying the Earth.
Oil pouring into the gulf naturally? Are you serious? You do realise that oil is 10,000 feet down... this is not the beverly hillbilly's where old pa shoots his gun at the ground and up comes some bubbling crude... lol. The Horizon rig was drilled down 30,000 feet. A typical oil well is 10,000 feet down. You must be drinking the purple drank.
I am very serious oil does come out of the sea floor in spots naturally. There have been microbes living on it before we started drilling. Where do you think these microbes come from. OIL is organic.
Sorry Dan, I know you're working for the Portland Chamber of Commerce, but oil seeps are quite common, on the Gulf floor and elsewhere. What do you thing the LaBrea Tar Pits (think fossils) were. Land based ones are pretty drilled out, but they're still common in the oceans.
yum yum nothing like some fresh Corexit Oysters! great for the whole family....
The great thing about Gulf oysters is that you don't have to choose between "packed in oil" or "packed in water". Either way, you get oil.
I guess highly trained human noses are better than highly trained doggy snouts! Dogs do not stop to smell the oyster, they will gobble it before smelling!
Hope the seafood comes with the label – Eat at your own risk! FDA cannot be trusted!
Considering what the FDA already allows in our food products, a little bit of oil is the least of my concerns.
And the best oyster fixin's oyster stew...and best when made to order for each bowl. Recipe put the oysters and their "juice" in one pan and heat til the ends curl. Meanwhile in the other pan milk OR half and half amount you want along with enough butter to give it a wonderful taste. When both are hot combine and wonderful wonderful wonderful.
Don't forget to add the parsley and a little sea salt!
What ! ? Someone's actually gone back to work rather than collect workfare from BP ?
They probably have to wear masks so they're not targeted by the "incapacitated" shrimpers, hairdressers, restaurateurs, ...
The BEST BEST BEST oysters I have ever eaten was on our trip to New Orleans. After going there oysters on the east coast are so puny and don't have that sweet delicious taste. Thank goodness they are coming back, i was so sad...
Go to Clancy's. The fried oysters n Brie are the best things I've ever eaten. I order them everytime I get the privilege!!!
Amen to that, Muffin!
Well, Obama lied again. Of course Obama has shutdown US oil drilling and our gas prices are going to skyrocket. The poor and the middle class will again pay for Democrat incompetence driven by junk science and stupidity! The poor need to march on Obama and demand he resign before he kills them off!
Obama is owned by BP.
Purse strings n the puppet.
and Bush is owned by the Saudies.
He didn't lie. You're just choosing to misinterpret everything. Guess where most of these oysters at these restaurants are coming from? Aquaculture. The others are probably coming from leases that weren't as affected by the oil. Furthermore, this is just a sign that some of the harvestable oysters (> 3 in) didn't die. We won't know if the population is going to rebound until we see the spat set this year. Then we'll know how the oil spill affected oyster reproduction and fitness and what the population may look like next year. Read a little before jumping to conclusions about "junk science".
M,
You can't debate with folks like Ken. It's a waste of your time. Not kidding, no joke, but it really is a brain thing and how your brain is wired and some people, like Ken, can take information and process it so that not matter what the reality of the situation is they will turn that information to fit their ego (ego, as in the three parts of the psychy). Google up some resent studies. US and Great Britan have done many on Ken's type.
Why would you want oil drills in the sea to continue? The more oil drills the more there is for a possibility of an oil spill.. The more oil spills you have is worse and worse it is for our oceans and sea life... And it would be the upper class and middle class that would pay for it if anyone...which no one really would have to pay for it.. I cant stand republicans because you are stepping over the point of isane conservitaveness. READ the facts before you talk poorly of democrats.. Blame obama if youd like but you blamed bush before that and every president before that... Its a circle of life its not his faulttt idiots.. Dont be so ignorant as to listen to your own opinions and no one elses... Youll ge nowhere in life.
Sam Sam Sam....That is great advise for all sides. I consider myself a middle of the road type of person politically and from where I stand, you all scare the hell out of me, with your name calling and blinded opinions all based on where you stand politically or what ever group you have choosen to be a part of. I know I am a dreamer, but if everyone would stop take a breath and listen to what others visions are you might all find that we could togeather put together a better world to live in. The reality is that we might all have to give a little. Perhaps even wash someone's feet.
Sam, I'm a liberal, but you're pretty incoherent. We drill for oil because we need the energy to fuel our civilization. It would be better if we could cut back, but we need to replace that energy first. The best way to reduce energy needs is to reduce the number of people, but religions and culture make that very difficult. Europe and the US have succeeded, but that just means we will disappear into the 3rd world. Thus we must look to new technology, but the conservatives make that impossible. They like to call themselves patriots, but the are our nation's worst enemies. We just have to take one day at a time and pray (haha) the scales fall from their eyes.
No junk science, and no stupidity in the administration, perhaps in your living room, though. I disagree with the moratorium, but it will only hurt locally, it will have little effect on global oil prices or your gas. Get over it, gas it going to be expensive, and driving your SUV is the best, most direct way to support our enemies in the world. You are selling yourself (and me) to Russia, Saudi, Venezuela, et al, and looking for someone to blame besides yourself. Birth control and carbon control are the only things that can save us from hard times ahead.
It takes years for an oyster to reach any size to consume not a few months. Areas that did not get hit have oysters areas that got hit with oil will never see oysters again.
o rly? is that a fact?
Never again? A ridiculous statement. Really, silly, dumb. What was the point of saying that? Dump some shells, seed some oysters, wait 2 years, and you're in business. Do you know anything?
Maybe we can use any non-operational oil rigs in the Gulf and build Wind Farms. Having more Wind Farms sure beats having more Oil Spills!
Not sure if that's a good alternative. Ever been to a wind farm? It's a noisy place to be.
I would say the opposite. Do to the enviromentalist record they were outright lying the same way they have abouut climate change to the spotted owl that was spotted living in a kmart sign.
slept through grammar and spelling class in elementary school huh?
go split hairs on your own blog. I don't see any holes in YOUR wrists toma$$.
Mike, do to (due to) your writing challenges, I can't even tell what side of what issue you're trying to come down on. If it's global warming, and against, I have sad news. Just because you're stupid and ignorant doesn't mean you're right. Climatologists overshelmingly agree (99%) that global warming is real, man made, and dangerous. Tell me, what's happening with ocean pH, and what does it mean? You don't know, do you? Do a search, quickly, then hit the Drudge report, and find some brainless parrot material.
I have little faith in the agencies designated to protect us. We will find out the health implications 10 years from now. Then there will be law suits that will drag on forever and a whole host of people finger pointing as to whose faul it is -SOS.
So agree with you! I'd be more worried about the chemical disbursements they put in the water...broke up the oil into teeny-tiny pieces that shellfish would have to filter. Won't touch them.
Disbursements?? Surely you mean dispersants?
Here in Oysterville – population 48 – on Willapa Bay we've got the cleanest water in the continental USA – check out theses oysters – all sizes – at willapa-oysters.com
Can I get 3 dozen for $20?
Gee! I thought the Gulf was going to be "dead" for 100 years! Missed that one! Just like global warming, er, global cooling, er, global change. Environmental activists with little science screaming like little babies. We need to marginalize these alarmists. Yes, discriminate against them, make them outcasts, and God forbid, that useful when appropriate emotion of "shame" will make a much needed comeback.
Doesn't say the Gulf isn't dead moron, doesn't even say they're safe to eat, just says some people are eating them. If people want to shove something that lives by straining water laced with oil and toxics in their mouth who are environmentalists to stop them? Try to see beyond the crap Limbaugh and O'Reilly feed you.
Thank you tomcat408 !!
D Frost, you are quite the idiot. No one of note said anything about 200 years. Some less informed worriers recalled Alaska, with its far less active biology, and project many years, but the well informed understood that recovery in the Gulf will be more rapid. Still, effects will be detectable for some time. The well informed (including essentially all climatologists and most scientists) understand the the complex process known as "global warming," "climate change," etc., is real, man driven, and dangerous. Some places will warm, some cool, storms will be more frequent, stronger, wetter. Many would be surprised that 2010, with all our blizzards, tied with 2005 and 1998 for the warmest year in recorded history.
Given the FDA's previous record on 'protecting' us – shooting animals full of hormones is OK apparently although banned in Europe for example – their blessing hardly fills me with confidence...
Jim, Europe's restrictions have less to do with actual hazards and concerns and more to do with keeping cheaper US products out of their markets. They do this sort of thing in many areas, even whipping up public paranoia to protect their inferior efficiencies.
Maybe Barry come down to sample other then jetting down for a photo-op
Louisiana coastal waters produce the tastiest oysters, come back baby, com back.
You go, you little devils. Who ever said that oysters were stupid? And, they're not just for breakfast anymore either! Eat all you can while they're still around...
oh, good. i'm feeling a bit frisky these days anyway.
You know I heard oysters were good for potency but when I tried them they just kept slipping off.
Got a pencil sharpener?
If they didn't have such an anti-green attitude in Louisiana politics, they might do more. The Chesapeake Bay went from a near-basket case in the 70's to the poster child of how going green can help industry in the long run. Recently, many oysters were wiped out by disease and a heavy influx of fresh water, so 450 million baby oysters were planted in the Chesapeake Bay in 2010. Oyster shells were collected from the Oyster Shell Recycling Alliance, a first-of-its-kind network of restaurants, caterers, seafood wholesalers and citizen volunteers that donate and/or collect used oyster shells. The shells are used by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) Horn Point Lab Hatchery in Cambridge, Maryland. After letting the shells age for about one year, the hatchery adds the shells and oyster larvae to swimming pool-size tanks, where the larvae attach to the shells. The resulting baby oysters, called spat, are planted in designated areas in the Bay. It sure beats sitting around the Bayous and waiting for nature to overcome human-caused problems.
You know Nothing about Sportsmans Paradise. We protect n preserve down here only to get SCREWED over by BP and govt.
Our 100 yr levee protection has stalled n it's the US govt that keeps taking back promised funding
Mick, I hope the effort succeeds, but I doubt it will. The water quality in the Chesapeake is still as bad, or worse, than it was when the Oysters all but disappeared. The only thing "going green" in the Chesapeake is the algae. The influx of fresh water may or may not have been the reason for oysters' problems, I think the jury is still out on that one. You would think that measuring salinity would be an easy thing to do for the DNR, but I never see any concrete data in any articles I've read on the issue. Wonder why not?
Mick, Bill has the Chesapeake right, and you know nothing of Louisiana politics. By the way, I know where you got your 60 second facts. I did a quick search for production volumes of Chesapeake versus Gulf oyster and turned up your article as number 3. If you don't even have an original thought you ought to just read.
This article was payed for by BP, Ford, Chrysler etc.
Paul's post brought to you by Clueless, Inc. and Pulledfrombutt Corp.
Conrad - let me guess, if this had been an article about doom and gloom, you would have just called CNN the "liberal media" and pretended that it was all made up?
Must be nice to automatically have an answer no matter what the news is.
Why do you say that? Because it doesn't track with the hysterical doomsday narrative that environmental extremists are are still trying peddle about the Gulf?
Yes, that's exactly why he said it.
Spelling fail, Paul ("payed").
Photo 8 – love that salad, one of my all time favorite restaurants!
Those "other Gulf states" where oysters are being bought would be Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida (3 states whose coasts also saw BP oil spill damage and have delicious seafood). In fact, volunteer organizations (with volunteers from across the US) in Alabama are creating new oyster/sealife breeding grounds in Mobile Bay from oyster shells in an effort to replace some of the wetlands destroyed by years of development. There's nothing like a fresh GULF oyster–no matter in which state it's raised or caught. And while we don't know the longterm effects of the oil spill, I will say that Gulf seafood is better than ever right now. Yum.
I got some over in Apalachicola about 5 months ago. Best oysters I've ever had and I eat em all the time in Mobile.
They weren't affected by the spill, so they were shipping oysters to most of the southeast.
All of that will be for naught if they don't figure out how to get the oyster drills under control. The RCAP is doing good work and restoring the reefs is a great idea and worth effort, but someone has got to figure out how to get rid of those drills.
how incredibly naive..trust the people who want your money to protect you from the bad stuff..and smell testers? have we really degenerated this much intellectually?
You don't eat oysters, do you, krista.
Apparently you have, Krista. Paranoia is the last refuge of dementia.
I prefer oysters from colder waters.
I prefer oysters.
I love raw oysters on-the-half shell and in oyster soup. I know the Good Book says not to eat shellfish, but I eat them anyway. Never did figure out why it says that. I love New Orleans and hope they make a comeback in a big way. It will just take a little more time...
Probably because the guy who wrote that had a bad one; they don't keep well in the desert.
That's because you are reading the "old" book. The new and revised book does not limit the foods you eat and supersedes the "old" book. This was done because certain foods, like pork and seafood did not last long and spoiled and people would get ill from eating them. So they used religion, and the authority that comes with it, to keep people from eating foods that made them ill.
We do this today. We tell out children they can't do certain things because Santa Claus won't think they are good and they won't get any gifts. Yes, it's a retail good that governs us now!!
That "spoiled" food, and trichinosis in the case of pork, argument is an old one, but doesn't really hold up. All food spoiled quickly at that time and no one had any knowledge of bacterial or parasitic disease, or for that matter much of any biology. I don't know how tasty shellfish form the Red Sea or Sea of Galilee is, but it could be unpalatable. The pork issue more likely came from the fact that unlike cows, goats and sheep, pigs cannot adapt to a nomadic life, a life necessary for survival in the region.
Personally, I'm happy all the tin-hat, "the Gulf is Dead" envropoluzies won't touch Gulf oysters and shrimp. It helps keep the price down for the rest of us who know how good it is. Their idobloviation isn't good for livelihood the hardworking shrimpers and oystermen in the region though. (yeah, I made those two words up)
Conradshull, you don't have to know much about parasitology to know that people die when they eat certain things. The bans sprang from real dangers, but are hopelessly outdated, along with most of the foundations for the world's religions.
The Good Book says that because it was written by a bunch of primitive provincial peasants in ancient times. They had no idea what made them sick, so they had God forbid whatever they suspected. God went along with it because he is a man-made construct.
Oh, gee, I wonder if that poor BP exec ever "got his life back".
@Corvus1, Yeah. Did anyone do any time or is the 'incident' still being 'investigated?'
11 men died. Their families were given nothing for compensation.
The evidence keeps mounting and yet only the BP shareholders are going to recoup.
BP in the least should serve time for murder premeditated
And I wonder if any Americans used less oil in 2010 to help lessen the need to drill in the Gulf.
I did. I got rid of my SUV and take public transportation now.
We did too! Went from two cars down to just one and I take the bus part way to work.
Great question to ask President Obama. Is the US consuming more, or less petroleum since you took ofc?
Hey, Bill,
Are you suggesting that Obama be given the power to regulate the type of car you drive and what companies use for fleet vehicals in order to control the amount of oil this country and it's citizens (that's you too) use? I think your blind, yet blatant, distain is clouding your logic.
I bought a hybrid auto. It get 3 times better gas milage.
Hey Steve, I voted for Obama. It's not about "disdain", it's a legit question. I think the President, whoever he or she is, does have a lot of clout when it comes to energy consumption and alt energy development. Hasn't Obama said, more than once, that we should be reducing our dependence on fossil fuels?
Bill, Obama can't do anything about morons, it's a free country. It's why the Republicans won the mid-terms.
They never left in the Pacific Northwest. Nothing like an oyster that's roughly the size of your entire hand.
Yuck. West Coast oysters are disgusting.
Clearly spoken by someone that has never had one. You sound like a 4 year old.
West coast oysers are great as well. but some are so large, u just can't serve them on the half shell pan fried are excellent though. Sea of Cortez are IMO some of the best, the higher salinity gives the oyters more flavor. My fear with the gulf coast oysters is the long term effect of BP's response. Corexit is a nasty chemical. and oysters are filter feeders.
Best oysters are from Massachusetts! Try some from Island Creek Oyster or Cotuit Oyster. They both have websites you can order them from and have them shipped to your door. You will not be disappointed! Personally, i have tried west coast and southern oysters, and they just arent the same.
The best oysters I've ever had, and the only ones I'd ever eat raw, were from Alaska. That's west coast.
We had the West coast oysters during the Spill.
Yuck
Spit out n sent entire order back
Sorry but once you have had a Gulf oyster you Can Not switch to anything else.
N people heads up.. BP is STILL spraying Corexit down here n we all have nasty sinus infections n coughs.
Thats horrible Muffin...
I wouldn't eat them and I hope they are being stringently tested.
Mid-and-long term effects need to be monitored as well.
Its less the OIL than the poison being sprayed.
I dig the West Coast oysters-kumamotos! As stated above, the ones as big as your forearm are a little off putting. The best by far though, are the Wellfleets from here in Massachusetts. Yum! Best place to have them in Boston- Neptune Oyster, North End....
Best oysters are from the place near where I grew up!
Oysters from places that aren't near where I grew up are inferior, and in some cases disgusting!
The problem with your oysters is that one of them costs what a dozen of ours cost, and ours (Gulf) taste better. I visited San Francisco some time ago, and Boston after that. The oysters were hideously expensive, and not very good. The days of dime oysters seem to be over, but I can score a dozen big ones for $8 any day of the week, with a cold beer on the side. Sorry guys.
Oh, and re Corexit, it's just frickin' detergent! Get over it. Don't drink it, but a few hundred thousand gallons in an ocean? What a bunch of pansies!
They're not making a comeback in the Chesapeake Bay...
So wait, I thought the BP spill was going to make the Gulf a dead zone for the next 200 years, and that is why BP had to give the government $20 billion. Is CNN saying that it was all a swindle?
Did you read the entire story?
Yeah no, the lobbyist & GOP will make sure that BP never has to pay a dime... and that 500 million in the account now, is money from the fed as a credit to BP
Of course he didn't read the article. Conservatives don't like to read because "facts" and "accurate information" tend to invalidate their opinions.
The oysters are in estuaries which are inland. They're not harvesting these things under the sunk oil rig.
There's also a great deal of farms that raise these, now, if these were shrimp or flounder..... they've got images of shrimp surviving in the oil just fine.
Mobtown,
Seriously,that's your argument? Seriously? You might want to download Google Earth. It's free and you can look and see that the waters in the coastal gulf areas are all connected. So, if I spray 1.8 million gallons (BP's numbers on amount of dispersments they sprayed) of anything in waters that are connected, guess what? ......(Jeopardy theme music).....
you may want to read up on the present effects of the crude oil @Exxon Valdiz's Prince William Sound. There's a layer just beneath the ground that is 1 foot thick of crude oil, still to this day.
the harvest was down 50% because they were not allowing anyone to fish or collect. Nature is resilient. The whole thing was a sham as was the whole Toyota gas pedal thing that the government construed in order to make GM come back – think about the timing of that coupled with the cash for clunkers program. What did the Nasa people uncover about any issues – NADA. Our government is truly a piece of work.
I may be assuming that Texas Pete is from that region (by at least his pen-name). If that's the case then he is probably more exposed to this kind of news that we in other regions may not hear. Perhaps BP did once declare the area a dead zone... etc. As far as the "swindle", his perception of the article is that the current govt. admin blew this out of proportion – thus the area is naturally recovering as the article is citing. He obviously read the article.
What the hell does politics have to do with this? The statement regarding GOP/lobbyist assuring that BP does not have to pay fines is just ludicrous as the article states that $30 million from BP is being used for "rebranding seafood from the area as safe and delicious." In other words BP payed (or are paying their dues) AND have been helping out with the cleanup effort to begin with.
Also... If Pete is indeed Conservative, then your whole perception regarding Conservatives in regards to knowledge and truth have been blown out the window – hence any argument regarding to political leanings (liberal or conservative, etc) are, at least in this forum, irrelevent (and such efforts to do so are ponderous).
I heard some say all the oceans would be ruined. Pure BS...much like all of Muffins comments below. Still spraying corexit...right..sure.
Leave it to a Texan not to read the article...
Are people really that dumb in Texas?
@Jdee, Texas Pete hotsauce is actually made in Salem which is not in Texas... :) They kept the name because it was catchy.
Hi, i read your comment and thought maybe this might help. I watched some show with Jesse Ventura about a conspiracy theory about your exact comment about the dead zone. Whether it is true or not im not sure. I live on the gulf coast in Destin Florida and supposedly the 20 billion is for the BP/GCCF claims process for all the individuals and business's along the gulf coast, who were impacted by the spill.
I don't know if captain jones lives down here or not, but if he did he'd know at least a handful of people who have gotten BP money. Some deserved it, some not. I live down here and I do.
Oysters washed down by Louisiana Crude, sounds tasty, Lets see what the oysters look like in 5 years.
Probably the same.
I wouldn't eat anything that grew in the Gulf (or near it for that matter). BP flooded the waters with oil dispersion chemicals which are considered VERY toxic.
JIm, the toxicity of the dipsersants is grossly exaggerated, and the effect is fairly local to the well. Most of the damage to the oyster industry was caused by infusions of fresh water released in attempts to keep the oil out of the marshes. No oil or dispersants can be detected in any seafood for sale. I eat them regularly and sadness at the economic effects of the freshwater kill, temporary closures, and worst, the marketing issues are only slightly mitigated by the fact that the price effect for me is favorable.
Yummy....all of that dirt and filth going into the lake and bayous from Katrina from New Orleans. Yeah, I want to get cancer.
Dirt causes cancer? Oh, no!!!! You are a delicate flower, and you already have cancer.
Guess we need an oil spill ... oh, they've banned offshore drilling ... they're gonna hafta wait.
I am sure that BP is paying CNN big bucks for this huge advertisement that they are running as a headline journalism article. Why report real news when companies will pay you big profits to fake it for them?
You're a sad case, Tom.
Cool. You go first. I will check back to see how your offspring look like. Web feet and all.
They're doing great in the gulf, except now they are called oylsters!
It's still toxic- the petro-chem sloshing around at the bottom of the brackish water will be chock full of heavy metals and carcinogens for a couple of generations... but people eat hormone laced beef and gmo frakenfood all the time...why not toxic oysters. BTW Oxy Chem built apartments at the edge of Love Canal just to prove a point... that pollution is ok and toxins are good to have in your environment. Just ask Brownie.