Longtime Gulf Shrimper Closing Business

Now class, repeat after me:  "There is nothing wrong with Gulf seafood. There is nothing wrong with Gulf seafood. There is nothing wrong with Gulf seafood."  Now read this:

NEW ORLEANS - Dean Blanchard is a third-generation shrimper who owns a processing plant in Grand Isle, LA.

He's also part of a documentary debuting at the New Orleans Film Festival.  "The Big Fix" tracks the Deepwater Horizon disaster and its producers claim the oil and dispersants are causing wildlife and people to get sick.

Blanchard says he sees it firsthand in his business.

"We're seeing dead porpoises, we're seeing shrimp with no eyes that's still alive, we're seeing fish with tumors the size of golf balls in them, we're seeing fish with oil all over the gills, we're seeing shrimp with oil all over the gills," says Blanchard.  "It's hard for me to think that everything is going to be alright."


Blanchard says fewer shrimp are coming into his plant this season and some of the shrimp show signs of contamination.  Business is so bad, he closed the plant Thursday night and he's not sure he'll reopen it.


"I came home and I started looking at my books and I don't see where it pays us to stay open," he says.  "Basically we're giving more credit than what we're getting in profit. We're going backwards."
Blanchard laid off 65 people immediately following the oil spill and says 20 more jobs could be jeopardy.  He says he plans to keep fighting to make sure BP continues to pay up and clean up.

 Now go and watch the video HERE.  I don't want to embed it because it deserves many more hits than it has.


The film "The Big Fix" (I would love to see it) caused quite a stir at the festival, so I hear. And rightly so.  This situation in the Gulf - and beyond - is going to be with us for a long time. Don't believe the BP PR machine.

Note:  Following the previous 2 posts on this subject I received anonymous comments from individuals (?) written in prepared script form, practically bullet listing all BP has done so far.  Clearly rubbish, I rejected them. Anonymous postings don't prove anything is true.  Whenever anyone wants to go on record and prove any of these posts false, I will gladly post their comments, after checking their sources, of course.


And so it goes.
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