From Louisiana Seafood News| July 15, 2010
by Springfield Lewis/Newsroom Ink
The current challenges facing Louisiana fishermen, the seafood industry and the fragile wetlands along the state’s coast were the focus of a live broadcast from New Orleans to the world by BBC Radio’s program, “World Have Your Say,” hosted by BBC correspondent Robyn Bresnahan.
Reaching a global audience estimated at more than 190-million listeners, panelists included Ewell Smith of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board; Denise Reed, a professor at the University of New Orleans; celebrity chef and restauranteur John Besh; actor, humorist and writer Harry Shearer; Justin Barisich, son of a 3rd generation Louisiana fisherman; and Garland Robinette, well-known New Orleans radio personality.
Barisich said that watching what’s happening to his father, he’s not sure he will follow in his footsteps as a fisherman. “I don’t know how much longer he can last,” he said of his father.
Joycelyn Heintz, a Louisiana State University mental health worker, said programs are being set up to counsel and provide assistance to fishermen and their families during this crisis, the result of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Listeners from England, Nigeria and Alaska called with questions and comments. A man from Alaska said 21-years after the Exxon Valdez spill, areas of seafood production there have still not fully recovered.
Ewell Smith of Louisiana’s Seafood Board indicated a concern that it may take several years for the state’s renown seafood industry to recover from the current BP oil spill in the Gulf.
“We’ve been working with EPA, FDA, Department of Health and Hospitals, Department of Environmental Quality, NOAA fisheries, all those different health agencies are working collectively together, unprecedented levels of testing and so far the good news is nothing has come back showing any signs of any problems,” Smith underscored.
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