NEW ORLEANS -- As the oil creeps closer to Louisiana, so do a long list of potential problems. Those who make their living from the seafood industry are bracing for the worst.
For landlocked out-of-towners, fresh seafood is always a must during a stay in the Big Easy.
"Obviously, it's part of the ambiance, the culture," said Llyod Chris, a tourist from Lexington, Kentucky.
And the tasty staple is also very clearly a part of Louisiana's bottom line.
"I think it's very important," said Jesse Jones, a tourist from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. "Whenever you read about Louisiana restaurants, it's about seafood mostly."
But that shimmering sheen in the gulf is growing, eerily making its way to shore. On Tuesday, the leaking oil was just 21 miles from southern Plaquemines Parish -- that's 15 miles closer than where it was just a day earlier.
The jump in distance is troubling news for oyster fisherman. On Tuesday evening, a small group took a seat inside the Belle Chase High School Auditorium. Officials with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries offered up new information on regulations surrounding oyster harvesting and handling.
But John Tesvich, an oyster distributor and president of the state's oyster dealers and growers association, said there could soon be much bigger worries for the industry if the oil reaches the coast and flows into estuaries and oyster beds.
"We're very concerned," said Tesvich. "This could be a major catastrophe. We've never had anything like this."
Plenty of oyster fisherman and growers in the area, like those meeting in Belle Chasse are watching the location of the oil sheen very closely because they know a potential landfall would not only devastate this season, but others to come.
"It's virtually impossible to clean up in a short time period," said Tesvich. "It goes in marsh land and in the grass, that cannot just be cleaned and changed. You would have impacts probably for a year or two, or more."
And the trickle-down effect would likely arrive on the door stop of area seafood shops, like Captain Larry’s in Belle Chasse. Suzette Tillotson now runs the family business and says relatives who don't work there work elsewhere in the industry. The potential fallout from an oil landfall, she said, would be a family affair.
"It could be devastating to all the commercial fisherman, that whole industry," said Tillotson, "All of the shucking houses as far as oysters, all the factories that peel the shrimp. It would put a lot of people out of work."
