NEW ORLEANS -- Four days into Louisiana's white shrimp season and buyers say all is well.
Thursday, New Orleans seafood dealer Wayne Hess bought about 700 pounds of shrimp from a couple of fishermen from Lafitte.
"As you saw the shrimp that came in, I counted them," said Hess. "There's no smell. I peeled a few a couple of shrimp. There's nothing that you can smell or see, there's no oil running off the shrimp when they dug them out of there. The shrimp are good."
The shrimp may be good, but because of the BP oil spill, a skeptical market needs some convincing.
The state asked BP to put up $173 million for a five-year seafood certification and marketing plan. It would help promote the safety of Louisiana seafood across the country.
Gov. Bobby Jindal announced BP has only agreed to pay $13 million for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to monitor how or if the spill is affecting local fisheries.
"I do want to thank BP for this investment, but I do want to emphasis this, this is only a first step," said Jindal. "We need the next step to happen within days, not weeks, not months, we need that next step to happen right now."
Local leaders say the long-term plan, which calls for testing 400 samples of seafood a month, is the only way to save a way of life along coastal Louisiana.
"If there's not a plan in place to show America that it's safe, those shrimpers will be out of work, their nets will not go back in the water, the price will drop and their livelihoods will be lost for many years," said Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser.
Local seafood dealers say BP has yet to compensate them for their losses and the least the company can do is to help pay for testing and marketing.
"They owe us that," said Hess. "They owe everybody in the United States to assure everybody that the seafood's safe. Whatever testing needs to be done, they need to pay for it."
No word when or if BP will raise its financial commitment to long-term seafood testing.
