NEW ORLEANS -- Some of New Orleans' most famous chefs and restaurant owners boarded boats at the Myrtle Grove Marina to see for themselves the slow moving disaster on the water.
They passed miles of oil stained boom, doing little to keep BP's toxic sludge out of the marsh grass in Barataria Bay.
"There's no cleanup," said Chef Duke LoCicero of Cafe Giovanni. "Where are the cleanup guys? Why are we sitting around letting this happen? I don't understand it?"
"I wanted to know from firsthand how bad it was," said Chef Paul Prudhomme of K-Paul's. "I've seen good stuff and I've seen bad stuff. We just got to wait."
Oysterman Dave Cvitanovich pulled up some oysters from his lease near Wilkinson's Bayou.
"There's 1150 acres of that stuff right there that are mine," said Cvitanovich. "Two weeks from now you're going to come back and you're going to see nothing but open shell."
The oysters in Barataria Bay are healthy and growing, but because of the oil now threatening their leases, oystermen fear this year's crop could be a total loss.
"Those oyster beds are 15 to 20 miles inland," said Drago's owner Tommy Cvitanovich. "For that oil to already be that far inland and we weren't able to stop it in the outside waters, it's truly sad."
The restaurateurs say the trip to the marsh gave them a greater understanding of the magnitude of the oil leak and its potential effects on the hospitality industry.
"Being out there today, I want to fight more than I ever have," said Dickie Brennan, owner of Bourbon House Seafood Restaurant. "I think we can still get out there and salvage a lot of things."
Congressman Joseph Cao spoke with the group back at the marina.
"I believe that if the president would come here tomorrow to actually have a dozen oysters, shrimp from the Gulf, some boiled crabs, it would send a message very loudly that seafood from this area is absolutely safe," said Rep. Cao, R-Louisiana.
Safe, but according to the chefs, in short supply because of the spill.
