It is not even dawn and Al Sunseri is hustling to load sacks of oysters in a truck as the potentially catastrophic oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico forces him to ponder the unthinkable.
“I guess we’re probably going to end up out of business,” he says of his 134-year-old processing company, P&J Oyster, as he considers what could happen if the state’s shellfish beds are shut down for a long period of time.
The oil spill, already one of the worst in US history as it reaches the state’s coastline, has threatened to cut off supplies of Louisiana oysters, a vital economic resource and a beloved symbol of local culture.
PHOTO: AFP
Louisiana’s shellfish industry provides about a third of the nation’s supply each year and a complete shutdown would badly hit the pocketbooks of many.
However, it would also be a cruel moral blow to an area still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina, with oysters on the menu seemingly everywhere in New Orleans, from hole-in-the-wall saloons to the finest restaurants.
Oysters aren’t a delicacy here — they’re practically a necessity.
“That’s why I came here today,” Russell Henderson, a 62-year-old slurping down a dozen raw oysters at Casamento’s in uptown New Orleans, said on Saturday.
“I’m out running errands and I said, ‘I better get some oysters while I can,’” he said.
Oyster gathering areas have already been closed along Louisiana’s coastline east of the Mississippi River, and fishermen and processors fear the worst is yet to come.
Officials say, however, that the oysters that are still being brought to market are safe.
The oil also poses major risks to other seafood products, including crabs, shrimp and a wide range of fish, but an oyster shutdown may hit closest to home.
Louisiana produces about 113.4 million kilograms of oysters each year, amounting to about a third of the US total, said Mike Voisin, who serves on an industry board that advocates for oystermen.
“Oysters are culturally a part of who we are,” he said. “I’m seventh generation in the oyster business. Oyster liquor runs in our blood.”
They’re eaten any number of ways here: fried, on sandwiches called po-boys or raw. There are recipes including Oysters Bienville or Oysters Rockefeller. They are charbroiled sometimes.
“It’s people’s livelihood. There’s a whole economy based on it,” said Greg Placone, a 26-year-old law student who was eating raw oysters at Casamento’s on Saturday.
Casamento’s, a stripped down seafood spot with a white tile dining room where two oyster shuckers work expertly, has been in business since 1919.
Locals mobbed the place on Friday to grab what they feared could be their last Louisiana oysters for some time, owner C.J. Casamento said.
“First time we ran out of every beer we had in here,” he said of Friday night. “I ain’t never seen that.”
Sunseri of P&J said he hoped a first annual oyster festival set to take place next month could still go ahead. He wasn’t ready to throw in the towel.
He said he couldn’t remember the first time he ate an oyster.
“All I know is my daddy said I ate oysters before I could walk,” said the 52-year-old, whose family business is located in the city’s historic French Quarter. “And eating them raw — not just oysters.”
Chuck Brown, 66, ate raw oysters with his nephew at Casamento’s on Saturday and also said he wanted to get them while he still had the chance. Asked why people in New Orleans eat so much of the shellfish, he offered his own theory.
“Oysters, for a man, keeps us healthy,” he said with a sly smile. “I’ll put it as polite as I can.”
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that China has “no right to represent Taiwan,” but stressed that the nation was willing to work with Beijing on issues of mutual interest. “The Republic of China has already put down roots in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu,” Lai said in his first Double Ten National Day address outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. “And the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China [PRC] are not subordinate to each other.” “The People’s Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan,” he said at the event marking the 113th National Day of
RISK REMAINS: An official said that with the US presidential elections so close, it is unclear if China would hold war games or keep its reaction to angry words The Ministry of National Defense said it was “on alert” as it detected a Chinese aircraft carrier group to Taiwan’s south yesterday amid concerns in Taiwan about the possibility of a new round of Chinese war games. The ministry said in a statement that a Chinese navy group led by the carrier Liaoning had entered waters near the Bashi Channel, which connects the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean and separates Taiwan from the Philippines. It said the carrier group was expected to enter the Western Pacific. The military is keeping a close watch on developments and “exercising an
RSS