Last month’s oil spill from a terminal operated by the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, or LOOP, is threatening the state’s oyster industry. Last month, a cargo transfer hose at the terminal located 18 miles offshore in Terrebonne Bay sprang a leak, spewing more than 31,000 gallons of Venezuelan crude into the bay. Mitch Jurisich, the chairman of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force, says the oil has now made contact with the coast, which can spell disaster.
“You’re cleaning up beaches; you’re cleaning up marshland. And the closures we have in place right now on oyster harvesting in those areas, they’re not going to be able to reopen anytime soon,” Jurisich said.
Jurisich says this oil spill could contaminate a large portion of the oyster population, putting a significant dent in the oyster supply at restaurants in Louisiana and beyond.
“Oysters are filter feeders. They’ll filter up to 50 gallons of water a day, while they’re feeding. So, it’s very likely that a lot of these oysters will have that oily taste and smell to them. And we definitely don’t want that to hit the consumers,” Jurisich explained.
Jurisich says this has the potential to be evocative of a certain devastating oil spill from 16 years ago.
“We don’t want to see this turn into a BP type of situation, where people totally didn’t want an oyster from Louisiana at all. It took us several years to get our market back after the BP oil spill,” Jurisich said.
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