On his dock along the banks of Bayou Yscloskey, Darren Stander makes the pelicans dance.

More than a dozen of the birds have landed or hopped onto the dock, where Stander takes in crabs and oysters from the fishermen who work the bayou and Lake Borgne at its mouth. The pelicans rock back and forth, beaks rising and falling, as he waves a bait fish over their heads.

At least he's got some company. There's not much else going on at his dock these days. There used to be two or three people working with him; now he's alone. The catch that's coming in is light, particularly for crabs.

"Guys running five or six hundred traps are coming in with two to three boxes, if that," said Stander, 26.
Out on the water, the chains clatter along the railing of George Barisich's boat as he and his deckhand haul dredges full of oysters onto the deck. As they sort them, they're looking for signs of "spat": the young oysters that latch onto reefs and grow into marketable shellfish.
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As the massive flooding from the Mississippi heads towards the nation's richest oyster grounds, Mike Voisin feels that old familiar feeling.

He's seen the damage caused to the oyster business in Louisiana firsthand over the past six years. After Hurricane Rita and then Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana, the oyster business realized they needed protection.  A part-government, part-private insurance program gave them breathing room to recuperate.

But then the blows kept coming. One, after another, after another. Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Gustav again battered the spirits and livelihoods of those who depend on their oyster crops.

Read "Oysterman: BP left us vulnerable, flooding could be 'knockout blow'"

Previously - Oysters stage a comeback after BP disaster

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico killing 11 crew members and leaking more than 200 million gallons of oil into the water. Today marks the one year anniversary of this disaster.

From "Stories from the Gulf, one year on"

In the Louisiana marshes, members of the Pointe Aux Chenes Indian Tribe say the spill has affected everything.

"It changed our way of life for sure," says tribe member Theresa Dardar. "We're not eating like we usually eat."

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Watch the Green Solutions in Focus: Eatocracy Edition hour-long special hosted by Tom Foreman on Saturday, April 23rd at 3pm ET and see all Earth Day coverage at eatocracy.com/infocus

Previously - Oysters stage a comeback after BP disaster, Beyond Raw: How New Orleans serves up oysters and a Secret Supper in the Big Easy
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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.

Ten months after the BP oil disaster that spewed about 200 million gallons of crude into the ocean off the Louisiana coast, oysters are starting to make a comeback in New Orleans restaurants – a remarkable feat, considering that about half of the local oyster population was killed during the spill; and considering that a majority of Americans surveyed still express some squeamishness about eating seafood from the Gulf of Mexico.
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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.”
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Our pal Chef Bryan Caswell, evangelist for Houston, friend of Waffle House, and recent Next Iron Chef contestant is a die-hard son of the Gulf and he'll do what it takes to get it cleaned up - even at the expense of his dignity.

p.s. That's him in the role of "John," rockin' the Nancy Sinatra white galoshes official White Boot Brigade-style shrimping kicks.

The White House is putting its menu where its mouth is.

President Obama and administration officials have said numerous times since the BP oil spill that seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is safe and good to eat.

Now, White House chef Cris Comerford says on the executive mansion's blog that she's ordered 2,000 pounds of Gulf shrimp and crab to serve during the holiday season.

Read White House eating, serving, promoting Gulf seafood

See all Gulf Coast seafood coverage on Eatocracy and full coverage throughout CNN

Chef Michel Nischan's Wholesome Wave initiative has been deeply rooted in the farming community since its inception in 2007, nurturing relationships between communities in need, and growers in search of local customers.

Now, Nischan tells Eatocracy, Wholesome Wave is partnering with New Orleans-based non-profit organization MarketUmbrella to offer food buying support, via a new program called MarinersMatch, to Gulf fishing families affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The spill, which released over 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from April 20th through its final sealing-off on September 19th, has had a tremendous economic impact upon the thousands of commercial fishermen, crabbers, oystermen and shrimpers who have long made their living from the Gulf waters. While areas remained unaffected, and BP has provided cleanup assistance jobs to some displaced workers, much of the community remains without a steady source of income.

MarinersMatch mimics Wholesome Wave's signature Double Value Coupon Program, which allows recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Electronic Benefit Transfer (SNAP EBT) or food stamps to receive double benefits when shopping at any of 160 participating farmers markets in 20 states around the nation. In this partnership with MarketUmbrella, a New Orleans-based organization devoted to growing the field of public markets for public good, the presentation of a valid fishing license and a photo ID will entitle the bearer to $40 worth of farmers market tokens for each purchase of food from local farmers along the New Orleans and Mississippi Gulf Coasts, while supplies last.
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More from WKRG

See all Gulf Coast seafood coverage on Eatocracy and full coverage throughout CNN