BP spill takes a toll down the bayou

A seafood restaurant owner looks at his near-empty restaurant at 1 p.m. A trawler’s net repair shop closes its doors, because trawlers’ nets aren’t being used anymore. A business owner thinks about the five generations of his company and wonders if it will ever be able to return.

These are just a few of the many worries that South Lafourche residents sleep with every night – for those that can sleep at all.

Economic consequences resulting from closed fishing areas have caused many to lose their jobs, and some, even their businesses. One of which is Troy Terrebonne, owner of the Cut Off Net Shop.

“None of my permanent customers are trawling right now,” said Terrebonne. “I’m available. If you called the shop, I have call forwarding. But I’ve had no calls and no business.”

Troy, who said he has lost 100 percent of his income, filed a claim through BP and receives $5,000 a month, a figure he said isn’t enough.

“You make a lot more than that right now when you’re busy,” said Terrebonne. “I make my year in these four or five months.”

Troy’s cousin, Laurence “Chine” Terrebonne owns Chine’s Cajun Net Shop in Golden Meadow. But luckily for Chine’s larger operation, he has only lost 30 percent of his businesses, because he services shrimp boats from New Orleans to Lafayette, as well as oil field nets meant to pick up debris under offshore structures.

“We’re making enough to keep our people going,” said Chine. “Right now, we’re hanging in there alright because we continue to work. But if the oil continues to spread further to the west, they’re going to have to stop them [from trawling] too, and we won’t know what will happen after that.”

With the future in doubt, the 70-year-old hopes he won’t have to turn to another industry to feed his family.

“This is all I’ve been doing my whole life,” said Chine. “I’ve been working with my father since I was 9 years old. I’ve never done any other kind of work, and I’ve always made a living with it.”

But Chine isn’t the only Golden Meadow resident with more than 60 years of experience worried about the family company.

Wilbert Collins, owner of Collins Oyster Company, was forced to shut down operations when his favorite fishing areas – Caminada Bay, Bay Carrion, Snell Bay and Grand Bayou were closed.

Luckily, Collins’ three boats have been hired through BP’s Vessels of Opportunity program, and he said he is actually making a little more than he would normally.

But with no timeframe on how long his boats will be employed and no idea if his oyster beds will return to their prior form, Collins is worried the best days of his five-generation business might be behind him.

“They have a lot of freshwater coming in with the freshwater diversions,” said Collins. “It might kill a lot of my oysters. When we go back to our fishing areas, it depends on what’s there and how they look.”

Collins sold his last oyster two months ago, and when local seafood suppliers don’t have seafood to sell, local restaurants and seafood retailers don’t either.

Jump down La. Highway 1 a mile or so to below Golden Meadow, and The Seafood Shed has had a difficult time acquiring shrimp or selling the little bit they have. Owner Carol Terrebonne said she had to lay off everyone except her children and grandchildren.

“All the tourists we used to sell shrimp to aren’t there,” said Carol. “I used to sell about 3,000 pounds a day. Now, we’re averaging 150 to 200 pounds a day.”

The Seafood Shed has filed a claim through BP, and Carol said it is enough to pay the bills right now, but she’s not sure how long that can last.

“We’re very worried,” said Carol. “We don’t know if we have a future – if we’ll have our August season.”

While The Seafood Shed specializes on shrimp, restaurants like B&E Seafood in Cut Off try to provide a greater variety of seafood – something the oil spill has made next to impossible.

“There’s no local shrimp, so I had to go west to the Morgan City-Lafayette area,” said co-owner Jeffrey Martin. “My oyster dealer told me the oysters I got, that’s all I’m going to get. I’ve been talking to other dealers, and I can’t find oysters.”

Martin had to shut down his seafood market next door to the restaurant, because he had such difficulty finding fresh seafood.

“Crawfish was all we were selling, because the little bit of seafood we were getting we were saving for the restaurant,” said Martin.

Only two patrons sat in his restaurant at 1 p.m., and Martin said business has dropped a lot since the oil spill.

The lack of revenue has caused him to decrease the number of waitresses per shift, resulting in some waitresses picking up hours by working in the kitchen – something that has never happened before at B&E.

“Next thing I see is to cut down some shifts,” said co-owner Dana Gros. “Then we’ll have to shut down some days. I just don’t see it getting better.”

B&E has filed a claim through BP, but Martin said he hasn’t heard anything back from the conglomerate.

Closer to where the seafood is caught, Leeville Seafood Restaurant still serves shrimp at the same price as before, because it was able to stock up right as the oil spill happened.

But manager Donna Charamie has seen a hit in business from the lack of tourists driving through the area, and she doesn’t know how long the restaurant can stay above water.

“Our winter months are really slow, so our summer months are when we’re real busy,” said Charamie. “We would save up for the winter, so we could stay above water. How we’ll do in the winter time now if business doesn’t pick up, that’ll be a different story.”

With no recreational fishing in Leeville this summer, coupled with the town’s BP workers eating catered meals, Charamie said business has dropped from about 150 patrons on a weekend night last summer to between 40 and 70 this summer.

And for those attempting to sell frozen shrimp, some are struggling because locals are used to the fresh product and don’t want it frozen.

“We have been getting some frozen shrimp, but people down here don’t want frozen shrimp,” said Tails N Scales owner Nikki Orgeron. “The last batch of jumbo shrimp we could sell was $4 a pound. Last year we sold it for $2.50 a pound fresh.”

Add the increasing prices to the lack of tourists driving through, and Orgeron said when she runs out of crawfish in a week or two, she will be forced to close Tails N Scales until the next crawfish season begins in November or December.

“Usually crawfish season would end, and we would sell fresh shrimp, crabs and bait for fishermen. [There’s] no fishing, so no bait, and shrimp prices are high,” said Orgeron. “They’re not buying a whole lot, because a lot of people are out of work now, and it’s a big ripple affect.”

And due to the ripple effect, some South Lafourche businesses completely unrelated to the oil spill are feeling its negative effects.

Ellen Decuir and Dallas Mangus, owners of Bayou Side Flea Market in Cut Off, said they’ve seen a 40-50 percent decrease in sales since the oil spill.

“The fishermen and the trawlers, they all come shop with us, so because they’re not working, we’re not making any sales, and it’s hurting,” said Decuir. “So help, help, come shop with us.”

The once profitable business has been relegated to receiving claims help from BP.

“You can ask anyone who knows us, our little place was kickin’,” said Decuir. “The parking lot was always full. They’d say, ‘You must be doing really good, because it’s full of cars.’ Now sometimes it’s just my car. It’s really hitting us hard.”

And inside of the flea shop sits a Cut Off Cash 4 Gold kiosk.

One would think locals strapped for cash would flock to sell their unused gold, but attendant Sharron Tibbs said that’s not the case.

“There’s a decrease in business big time,” said Tibbs. “It’s not nearly like it was before this oil spill happened.”

Tibbs’ husband, Noel Nacio owned a minnow and bait stand but has since been forced to close his stand due to the water closures.

The couple has had to move in with Tibbs’ mother, because she said they cannot afford to pay bills anymore.

Prior to the spill, Nacio borrowed his son’s boat to catch bait for his business. Tibbs said because the boat was in his son’s name and not his, Nacio is currently receiving the monthly deckhand rate of $2,500 from BP’s claims department rather than the $5,000 a boat captain should receive.

“We’re thankful for what we can get, but we feel BP has messed us up as far as my husband in the amount of money he should have gotten,” said Tibbs.

She added her husband’s lack of literacy makes it difficult for him to fill out the proper paperwork to get employed through BP’s Vessels of Opportunity program.

“But he knows the bayous like the back of his hand,” said Tibbs. “He was born and raised around here, so he knows this area. He’d know where to go and what to do.”

With nothing but oil on the southern horizon, South Lafourche fishermen and businessmen alike have nothing to do but sit and home and watch the tide roll in.

RICHARD FISCHER