Oil, Politics, and Fish

On April 20th, five years had passed since the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico - what CNN called the worst environmental disaster in US - 11 lives of rig workers were lost, too. CNN is reporting that as a whole, the Gulf is recovering, which I don't deny. Oil rigs, as lethal as they can be in the event of a spill, provide a habitat for a wide range of marine organisms, including a substrate for coral growth, which creates a livable habitat for many other creatures. They claim, "Fish landings in the Gulf, the amount of fish caught by the fishing industry, have returned." Actually, Red Snapper populations specifically are even better than they were 25 years ago. But how?

Legislation against fishing activity.

Red Snapper populations in the Gulf have been recovering, but because fishing has been largely monitored, at a great expense to the recreational fishing industries. Since 2011, Gulf states have been shortening the season to compensate from the colossal damage that the spill caused. To prevent over-fishing, a 9-day "mini-season" was enacted. The TAC, total allowable catch, was 106,000 fish, and in 9 days, the total fish caught and counted by NOAA was 205,859. Naturally, after over-fishing by about 100,000 fish, they closed the season for 2015. Now, the season won't open until the population assessment in 2016 is completed. This has difficult economic implications for the recreational fishing component of the nearby fishing towns. Not only is there a jolt in economic activity from the mini-season, it was an opportunity for fisherman to have a fishing hay-day and over-fishing was inevitable, commence a year of economic inactivity for Red Snapper. In Florida alone, Red Snapper recreational catches account for 49% of the fish population and generate $7.6 billion dollars in revenue. per. year.

Dr. Bob Shipp, a known fishing guru in the Gulf, claims that it is "probably the worst-management fishery in the United States, when you have a fishery that's so incredibly healthy, and yet you have a nine-day season for the recreational industry with devastating economic impacts on towns like Orange Beach, Destin, and Panama City." I can't say that I disagree.

Aside from all of the Red Snapper politics, the CNN article felt strangely eerie to me. Oil means money. It just does, and I understand that given our current energy resources, it is inextricably tied to greater economic and social well-being, but to say that fish populations are recovering without any mention of how they're recovering is a bit... slimy, if you ask me.

Here are some links that I did further background reading on (in addition to what the infamous Liam Carr taught us via SFS).

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/14/us/gulf-oil-spill-unknowns/

http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/sustainable_fisheries/s_atl/sg/2015/red_snapper/index.html

http://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/

http://www.tampabay.com/sports/outdoors/tomalin-delicious-but-contentious-tale-of-red-snapper/2231556