San Francisco Oil Spill & Our Local Fishing Industry

I've posted about the state of our local fishing industry in light of the San Francisco oil spill on Bay Area Bites.

I was fortunate to be able to interview Kathy and Steve Fosmark yesterday for the article -- they are husband and wife and in the fishing industry.  Talking to them really brought the devastation of this oil spill home for me -- when you are talking to real people whose livelihoods are being threatened by human error and slow response, it's hard to ignore what's happened.

One of the things I didn't talk about in the KQED article is the fact that the fishermen have been pushing to be part of an emergency response team, and are frustrated by the fact that this plan wasn't in place for the spill.  My understanding is that the boats already are required to have equipment which would make them perfect soldiers to help contain an oil spill.  And they are highly motivated to help in any way possible.  All they need is the green light to be able to help.

As an update to this morning's post, the Governor has suspended fishing and crabbing until December 1 at the earliest.  From the Chronicle article:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order late this morning suspending all fishing and crabbing for human consumption in areas affected by the Cosco Busan fuel spill until at least Dec. 1.

The ban includes all of San Francisco Bay, along with affected shorelines, coastlines and waters of San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Solano and Sonoma counties.

Comments

[Christine]

Thanks for posting about the oil spill. It amazes me how my papers and news shows in a major metro area are not reporting at all on the oil spill in San Fran or Russia. I am apalled. I guess big oil companies are the winners. For me, the sight of any animal that is suffering as a result of an oil spill is enough to push for alternative energy.