I was sent this article about the spill and thought I'd Share it with you
guys.
-Sarah
 
Fishermen Worry About Oregon Spill
.c The Associated Press
 
 COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) -- For the 5,000 people who work in the beleaguered Coos
Bay fishing industry, the spill of fuel oil from a grounded freighter is just
the latest bad news.
 
The richest oyster beds in Oregon have been shut down because of the spill of
70,000 gallons of molasses-like bunker oil. Regulators could decide the oyster
is an indicator of ocean health and move to shut down the remaining fisheries,
including crab and bottom fish.
 
The grounding of the New Carissa comes on the heels of a disastrous year for
fisherman, who were hit hard by federal restrictions on what they can catch.
And then there was last summer's tuna glut, when local fishermen filled their
boats only to find a market flooded by Asian fishermen.
 
``Talk about adding insult to injury,'' said Onno Husing, director of a
Newport-based Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association. ``That's what the
New Carissa is. It's like God, what's next?''
 
The Ocean Beauty fish processing plant used to be busy with trawlers unloading
their catch. Now it's silent, shut down a year ago. The nearby Hallmark
Fisheries facility employs only a third of the people it did five years ago.
 
From his window, Hallmark manager Scott Adams can see mountains of oyster
shells, evidence of an industry that is one of the few bright spots in the
Coos Bay economic picture.
 
Over the past dozen years, the Coos Bay oyster beds have quadrupled in size to
1,240 acres. They began supplying markets in Florence to Gold Beach, and then
to San Francisco and beyond.
 
Since the New Carissa went aground Feb. 4 and fuel has seeped into the water,
oyster shuckers, washers, processors and sales clerks have been sent home.
Nobody knows exactly when they'll be called back.
 
Oysters consume microscopic plants, which they filter from the water at high
tide.
 
``Anything else in the water will also get filtered,'' said Jan Hodder, a
marine biologist at the University of Oregon's marine laboratory here.
 
Oyster metabolic rates are slow; contaminants hang in their tissues for three
to five weeks. Biologists worry about accumulations that don't kill the oyster
but may cause ill effects both to the shellfish and to the people who eat
them.
 
``We need to be sure there's no chronic impact,'' said Deb Cannon, the
shellfish specialist at the state Agriculture Department, which closed down
the oyster harvest.
 
Larry Qualman, who took over his father's 62-year-old business, Qualman Oyster
Farms, said the spill could devastate his company and his crew.
 
``I can't have them around without any income for very long,'' he said. ``It
doesn't take long without any income to fold.''