Sportsman's Paradise Lost

Since the BP oil spill has started I have been an optimist. The whole time I have known that this is a worst case scenario, but with my home in South Louisiana I have had to believe the best. The tendency for me and many around me is to fight to save what we have and not to think about the odds. With that it has been important to save what is left and believe the worst case scenario will not be allowed to happen to us again.

I was fishing guide on the Gulf in my younger years and have many friends who make their living in the oil industry. The guide business is one that has enough difficulties that are acts of god to make a living difficult. The commercial fishing industry has the same challenges, but both the charter and commercial fishermen undertake these careers knowing them. These people live life by the high and low tides and hard work because it is a passion, not because of pay. A life on the water cannot be replaced by a high paying job with benefits sitting behind a desk staring at a computer every day. I know because I have had both lives. Being a guide I also know how important it is to be running trips during the summer which is the season that makes or breaks charter captains. For this reason I have tried to find the bright spot that will keep these people who do what they love afloat. As guides and sportsmen we have been doing our part to preserve the resource and cherishing what is there. All the legal fish I have thrown back over the years now seem as though they would be better off in my freezer.

People in our area depend on the oil industry for good jobs and the mistakes made by those in boardroom has put that at risk. Those who work in the industry work hard and endure long periods of time away from home to support the home. It has been hard watching the oil industry as a whole be penalized as those in the boardroom will not feel it in the way that the hardworking oilfield workers will. Layoffs are coming and the laid off will not be the the CEOs with golden parachutes, they will be blue collar workers with kids to put through school. These people are my neighbors and I don't want to watch them lose their homes and everything they have because of someone in the office. With a bad economy there will be nowhere for them to go even if they could. Louisiana was a safe bet for the banks as everything was in decline, now it may just add to the problem. Were there problems in the industry, sure, but no more than any industry that is driven by profits. The oilfield just as development, banking or any other industry has been pushed and corrupted by egotistical management. Over the last ten years most fields have pushed and put the responsibilities on the lower levels to do whatever it takes to realize goals over fear of termination. The officers of companies insulate themselves from responsibility while pushing the employees into questionable and risky ground where success can only be realized by breaking the rules. When it all blows up the guys at the top have golden parachutes and excuses, with while those under them are stuck with the responsibility and broken lives.

So now Louisiana that was known as Sportsman's Paradise now faces the fact that paradise has been lost. To what degree we don't know yet, and probably won't for many years. The tendency was not to bite the hand that feeds us but now we look at not being able to feed ourselves, in a literal sense as well. Faith in the oil companies has been built over sixty years and lost by one company. Faith in the federal government was already lost but recent lessons led us to think making such serious mistakes again unlikely. The state and parishes have learned lessons and are the only bright spot. That bright spot has been dimmed by the lack of support from the feds and BP. A month ago I like many other Louisianans started looking for ways to help and work in the spill to prevent what is happening now. The call hasn't come yet, and the only word is maybe next week, every week. This is the frustration as many want to be mobilized so something can be done to mitigate or try to solve the problem. The residents of the Gulf Coast have the right to have hope and wish for the best, BP and the federal government do not.