Louisiana officials have complained that BP was not doing enough to stop or collect the spill. (April Buffington/NYT Institute)

Ramon Antonia Vargas, a reporter at The Times-Picayune, rolled out of bed at 5 a.m. on April 21 to check the local news and came across the press release from the Coast Guard.

The press release said the previous night an oil drilling rig, known as the MODU Deepwater Horizon, had exploded and caught fire at 10 p.m. in the Gulf of Mexico, about 45 miles southeast of Venice, La.

“It was about a minute after I had woken up and I had already made my first call to the Coast Guard,” said Vargas.

In those same predawn hours, 16-year-old fisherman Nguyen Johnson was sitting in his father’s boat, east of Venice, smoking a cigarette, when he saw a glow on the horizon.

“I thought it was the sun,” he said. As he stared at the glow, his father told him it was a burning oil rig.

In New Orleans, Vargas was one of two reporters who were the first to arrive in the newsroom that morning. Vargas’ first call led to the earliest post about the accident, at 6:10 a.m. on April 21.

Vargas reported that seven of the 126 crew members had been injured on the drilling rig, which was operating in deep water. “I’m pretty much responsible for anything that happens overnight and early in the morning, and that just happened” while he was on duty, he said.

Shortly after, 90 survivors arrived on a crew boat at Port Fourchon in Lafourche Parish and the search for other survivors began.

Rescue boats were sent to and from Port Fourchon to the smoldering rig. Eleven workers were missing. Their bodies have not been found.

The day after the explosion, a second blast at 10:22 a.m., caused by 700,000 gallons of diesel fuel on board the smoldering platform, caused the rig to sink.

So far it seemed like a tragic, but not unprecedented, industrial accident.

But on Saturday, April 24, Coast Guard officials reported the first sight of leaking oil spurting from the pipes that had snaked a mile down into the ocean.

“That’s when I knew it was going to become an environmental crisis,” Vargas said.

BP, the oil giant that was drilling the well from the Deepwater Horizon, first estimated that the well was leaking about 42,000 gallons of oil a day. But it soon raised that estimate to 210,000, gallons a day, a figure that many scientists said was still too low. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began tracking it.

Brennan Matherne, the public information officer for Lafourche Parish, said: “When the rig exploded, our first thoughts were about the workers’ families. We were aware of the possibilities of damage to various businesses throughout the parish but until we saw the NOAA trajectory that would put us at risk for the oil to start affecting our parish directly, we did not declare a state of emergency.”

Within that first week, Matherne said, “we noticed that the plume of oil would not be staying to the east of the Mississippi River,” and that there might be the potential of oil touching the shoreline and perhaps “lasting effects for the oil and commercial and recreational fishing industries. We knew that there could be long-term effects.”

A week later, BP had tried two methods to control the leak: offshore burning of oil on the surface of the ocean and the use of robot submarines to try to close valves on the well.

A pungent smell tinged the Louisiana air as a growing slick estimated at 48 miles wide and 39 miles long began to head toward the coastline.

More than 400 species of marine life, from whales to shrimp, were at risk, and Louisiana state officials began to shut down fishing grounds off the coast, endangering the livelihoods of thousands of people who depend on seafood.

Early in May, BP had made an ambitious attempt to stop the oil flow by lowering a 100-ton box on top of the leak, with the intention of siphoning off the leaking oil. The attempt failed when ice crystals clogged the four-story box as it descended far into the depths of the ocean.

As the oil flowed unabated, BP continued to try to break up the crude with a dispersant called Corexit 9500. Fears that the dispersant might be as dangerous as the oil itself led the federal Environmental Protection Agency to ask BP to try to find a less toxic dispersant. But the company said there was no safer dispersants and continued to use the Corexit, though it said it would use much less of the chemical.
Politicians began to arrive, among them President Barack Obama, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
By now, the spill had reached the fragile Louisiana marshes that pockmark the Mississippi Delta, and dead birds, turtles and fish began washing up on shore. Beaches were closed as globs of oil washed up or as booms were laid to try to prevent that.

And still the oil flowed.

By the end of the May, the amount of oil flowing into the Gulf was being estimated at between 500,000 gallons and 800,000 gallons a day — meaning between 18 million and 29 million gallons had spilled. That makes the Deepwater Horizon spill the largest in the nation’s history, eclipsing the 11-million-gallon spill from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989.

Following three weeks of failed attempts to plug the well, the oil company hooked up a mile-long tube to funnel as much of the crude as it could into a tanker ship. Then, on May 26, BP tried a “top kill” of the well, pumping mud and concrete directly into the well’s entrance, with some success.

As the attempt to seal the well continued, President Obama returned to the Louisiana coastline to get a closer look at the devastation.

“We’re going to keep at this every day until the leak is stopped, the coastline is cleaned and your communities are made whole,” Obama said in Grand Isle, a fishing port just over 100 miles south of New Orleans. “That’s my promise to you. It’s a promise on behalf of a nation, and it’s one we will keep.”

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The population of the Gulf Coast grew twice as fast as the nation’s population between 1960 and 2008, according to a recently released US Census report on coastline populations, but the BP oil spill may change that trend.

Previous disasters, such as hurricanes that have hit the Gulf Coast, have affected population growth in coastal counties, the report stated.

After Hurricanes Andrew in 1992 and Opal in 1995, population in the affected coastal counties fell. However, population again grew by more than 20 percent in the following decade.

Recovery from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 has taken place more slowly, and the affected coastal counties have so far experienced a 2 percent loss in population, the report released May 26 said.

It is too early to know exactly how the damage from the BP oil spill will impact the population trend, said Robert Berstein, a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau. Currently, more than 100 miles of coastline in Louisiana have been affected by the oil spill, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The US Census Bureau report, “Coastline Population Trends in the United States: 1960 to 2008,” calculated that the Gulf Coast area’s population grew by 150 percent in that 48-year period, while the nation’s population grew only by 70 percent.

In 2008, the Gulf Coast had a population of 14 million living in 56 counties in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
For the past five years, Daniel Rothschild has directed the Gulf Coast Recovery Project to monitor the redevelopment of areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The project is organized by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

After Katrina, the return of social and economic entrepreneurs to the community has been essential to recovery from the storm’s damage, he said.

“The real key to effective rebuilding is really doing it from the bottom up, rather than the top down,” Rothschild said, referring to private enterprise, compared to government assistance.

Tom Clark, executive director of the Gulf Coast Education Initiative Consortium, said a growing number of casinos and business opportunities along the Gulf Coast has brought more families and money into the area.

In 2004, state-licensed casinos in Mississippi made $213 million in capital investments in the area. In 2007, casinos made $343 million in capital investments and provided 30,100 jobs.

“Before the casinos came in here, school buildings were getting crowded because of the influx of people and the casinos brought extra revenue to help build new schools,” Clark said.

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Deputy sherriffs stand guard at a beach on Grand Isle, La., which were closed as the oil spill reached the shore. (Imani M. Cheers/NYT Institute)

President Barack Obama took full responsibility for controlling the oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico at a White House news conference Thursday, but said the government would continue to rely on BP for cleanup efforts because of their superior technology and expertise.

“It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down,” he said. “The government is fully engaged and I’m fully engaged.”

The takeover of responsibility was a shift for the administration, which previously had said BP should make the major decisions because it had caused the leak, and had the technology. Now, BP will follow government orders on stopping the leak and cleaning the spill.

After a request from the Environmental Protection Agency, BP reduced its use of dispersants to break up the oil, because of the unknown long-term impact.

“Given the complexity of this procedure and the depth of the leak, this procedure gives no guarantee of success,” Obama said. “Process could take months.”

The president is scheduled to visit the Gulf on Friday morning to assess the damage from the oil spill.

The U.S. Coast Guard reports that “top kill” efforts in the Gulf of Mexico are making progress, but are far from completion. On Wednesday, BP began to inject mud into the well in order to plug the oil leak, but BP temporarily stopped the procedure late Wednesday when engineers found too much of the drilling fluid was escaping, but resumed it on Thursday.

Scientists have also found that more oil is leaking from the blown well than originally estimated. The U.S. Geological Survey findings range from 504,000 gallons to more than a million gallons leaking each day; BP had originally reported the amount as 210,000 gallons. It is estimated that the spill has surpassed the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill as the worst in U.S. history.

“Now we know the true scale of the monster we are fighting in the Gulf,” Jeremy Symons, senior vice president of the National Wildlife Federation told The Associated Press. “BP has unleashed an unstoppable force of appalling proportions.”

The new estimate of how much oil is flowing “does not and will not change the response,” Steve Rinehart, a BP spokesman, told The AP. “We are going all out on our response.”

Researchers at the University of South Florida College of Marine Science have also discovered a new plume of oil beneath the gulf. The plume stretches 22 miles northeast from the well leak, the second plume recorded since the explosion.

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen has approved portions of Louisiana’s $350 million proposal to build a wall of sand to protect the coastline from oil.

To date, federal officials said the oil spill has cost the government $87 million, the third-most expensive cleanup in U.S. history. BP officials said they would reimburse the government for “all legitimate claims.”

The president announced that a moratorium on new deepwater oil drilling permits would continue for six months while a federal commission investigates the spill. Obama plans to implement aggressive new operating standards and requirements for oil companies after the investigation. The government will also require certification of emergency cutoff valves on offshore oil wells.

The spill investigation and cleanup continues to hit roadblocks.

As the investigative hearings continue Thursday, BP’s Deepwater Horizon well site leader refused to testify, pleading the Fifth Amendment.

Elizabeth Birnbaum, director of U.S. Minerals Management Service, the department conducting the joint spill investigation with the U.S. Coast Guard, resigned today after criticism of poor oversight and unethical ties to the oil industry.

After some workers on commercial ships cleaning the oil in the Gulf complained of nausea and several were hospitalized, the Coast Guard pulled commercial vessels from the effort. The Louisiana Department of Health also warned oil spill workers of poison oak, chiggers and alligators while in the Gulf.
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It took three Fort Jackson rescue center workers over an hour to wash the oil-soaked brown pelican that was recovered in the marshlands of southern Louisiana. The pelican is one of 14 birds, eight of them pelicans, currently receiving treatment at the facility. The pelican will spend a few days preening and undergoing veterinary care before being released, most likely off the Atlantic Coast of Florida.

The pelican is the 35th bird that has been washed at the facility and rescue center. The staff says he probably won’t last. The impact of the oil spill on the wildlife has become a major concern as oil continues to gush from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico, damaging their homes. And as reports of oiled birds, turtles and other animals begin to come into the Deepwater Horizon Response Joint Information Center, rescue centers throughout the Gulf are preparing for an influx of activity.

There are 20 endangered species that could potentially be impacted by the oil spill, including leatherback sea turtles, whooping cranes and the West Indian manatee. Additionally, seven threatened species may also be affected by the spill.

Other nonthreatened or endangered animals are also at risk for injury or death from contact with oil. Although the oil in the Deepwater Horizon spill is classified as light crude, a less toxic oil than heavy crude, it still has the potential to cause long-term contamination, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Preening, the process by which birds arrange their feathers to create their waterproof barrier, is one of a bird’s strongest instincts. Oil inhibits the feathers’ ability to interlock, and oiled birds will stay out of the water, spending hours attempting to clean the oil off their feathers and arrange them properly. This not only keeps the bird from feeding, it usually leads to the ingestion of the oil, which has been shown to cause damage to internal organs such as the liver and kidneys, as well as cause a decrease in immune system function.

Rescue centers like the one at Fort Jackson have been working closely with the Deepwater Horizon Response to clean as many oiled birds as possible. Oiled wildlife are reported to the JIC and then transported to the center. After a bird receives an initial examination to determine its overall health, a feather sample is taken to establish the extent of washing that needs to be done. Once the bird is deemed stable enough for washing, three staff members begin the washing and rinsing process, which could take anywhere from 45 minutes to more than an hour.

Dr. Erica Miller, a certified veterinarian and lead washer for the rescue center, said the wash times have been getting longer in the past couple of weeks.

“The first few birds we washed were about 35 or 40 minutes and now as the oil’s getting stickier and aging on them it’s taking longer,” she said.

Clean birds are then housed in large cages with large swimming pools as they spend the next couple of days preening and receiving medical care. The average stay is about six days, with some birds staying as long as 10 days before being turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for release.

The most common animal associated with oil spills and wildlife is birds. They are likely to come in contact with oil as they float on the water’s surface, while preening oiled feathers or by eating contaminated fish.

The Audubon Nature Institute of New Orleans is also involved in the rehabilitation of oil-affected animals. The Audubon Aquarium recently received the first oiled turtle, a baby Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle, recovered 33 nautical miles offshore. The baby Kemp’s Ridley was given a bath and medical treatment before being released.

According to Doug Zimmer, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 200 dead sea turtles have been recovered, although it’s not known how many of them died of effects from the spill.

However, oiled animals aren’t the only concern for ecologists and environmentalists tracking the spill. The long-term effects on wildlife populations, marsh contamination and possible food contamination has experts anxious about how long it will take the Gulf to recover.

Dr. Martin O’Connell, a fish ecologist at the University of New Orleans, said every Gulf fish is at risk through either direct exposure or contaminated food sources.

“Even if the toxicity is gone, you’re still losing young and larval fishes,” he said. “Trillions of eggs have been killed either by the oil or the dispersant.”

O’Connell said the oil is not the only thing to blame for its negative effect on the marshes.

“If we had a healthy marsh to begin with, it wouldn’t have had such an impact,” O’Connell said. “Barrier islands need to have the correct sand and more river diversion is needed.”

U.S. Fish and Wildlife spokesman Zimmer said the spill will take a “long-term, subtle, biological bite out of the population.”

The threat of seafood contamination has led fish and wildlife organizations throughout the Gulf Coast to close certain waters to fishing, crabbing and oyster harvesting. There have been no reports of sickness caused by consumption of oil-contaminated seafood so far.

BP has committed to spending $500 million on research into the impact of the oil spill on Gulf marine life.

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The “top killing” began Wednesday afternoon — a procedure BP hopes will finally plug the open well that has leaked at least 7 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for more than a month. Mud and cement are being pumped into the well to stop the flow of oil and possibly seal the leak.

BP officials say there’s a 60 percent chance the procedure will work, but it may take up to two days to find out.

Miles away from the action, the Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service held joint investigative hearings in Kenner, La., to find out what caused the explosion. Doug Brown, chief mechanic on the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded April 20, testified on Wednesday.

Brown told a six-member panel that 11 hours before the rig exploded, a BP official overruled drillers from Transocean, the company that owns the rig. Brown said the BP official wanted to use seawater instead of drilling mud to plug the well until it was ready for production, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Drilling mud is a manufactured claylike mixture used to exert pressure on the pipe and prevent oil and gas from escaping from the top. Using seawater, which is lighter than the mud, allowed gas to escape, igniting a fire, according to documents from the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Capt. Carl Smith, a former Coast Guard captain serving as an expert witness for the panel, said using seawater made no sense.

“That’s something you learn at well control school,” Smith said. “If you’re circulating fluid, you need to monitor how much is going in and how much is coming out. If you get more fluid out than in, it’s an indicator that something’s going on.”

Hearings will continue through Saturday.

BP said its response to the oil spill has cost the company more than $750 million so far. The company has hired more than 20,000 people to assist with the cleanup efforts as contractors, subcontractors and boom laborers, said John Curry, BP spokesman.

The company said 25,000 claims for damages have been filed so far, and 12,000 claimants have received about $29 million in payments.

Meanwhile, the state is threatening to take over the handling of the cleanup, saying it is dissatisfied with the federal government’s slow response and BP’s inability to stop the leak. However, the state has minimal experience managing disasters of this magnitude.

As Louisiana’s frustrations mount, the number of people who have lost jobs because of the spill is adding to the state’s unemployment rate. Louisiana labor officials estimate nearly 18,000 jobs have been lost in manufacturing, construction and the petroleum industry already, and unemployment will continue to rise as a result of the oil spill.

Louisiana also fears its natural wildlife and multi-million-dollar seafood industry could be destroyed for years to come, the Associated Press reported.

President Barack Obama is expected to arrive in Louisiana on Friday to review the status of the cleanup efforts continuing along the coast. He will address a Department of the Interior review of offshore drilling. The department is expected to suggest stricter protocol and inspections for the oil industry.

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The chief mechanic of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig testified Wednesday that a BP official and a Deepwater rig manager were arguing on board the rig, just hours before the April 20 explosion.

The testimony of the mechanic, Douglas Brown, was given during the first day of the second session of federal hearings about the explosion that has led to several million gallons of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico. BP leases the Deepwater Horizon well from rig owner Transocean.

Brown said he witnessed an argument between a BP representative and Jimmy Herald, a Deepwater Horizon offshore manager, around 11 a.m. on the rig. According to Brown, the debate ended when Herald left the meeting grumbling to himself, saying “I guess that’s what we have those pinchers for.” Brown told investigators he believes this statement was in reference to the shear rams on a blowout preventer, the device used to slam a well shut in an emergency. Eleven hours later, the well exploded and the preventer failed to work.

“Somewhere before 10 o’clock you heard a large air leak sound,” Brown said. “We started hearing gas alarms going off and they kept piling on top of one another and more and more over the radio. And that’s when the power went out, and we were in the dark. After that was the first explosion. There was a hole in the floor and I fell through it. When I tried to get up the second explosion happened.”

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service are conducting a joint investigation into the April 20 blast and subsequent oil leak. One round of hearings was held two weeks ago and focused on the explosion itself. A second round started at a Kenner Hotel on Wednesday, focusing on the emergency preparedness of the crew, and a third round, known as the “technical verification” stage, is tentatively planned for July.

Investigators have said a final report will be released some time after the hearings conclude.

Brown’s testimony was the most vivid during a day that was dominated by technical explanations. During questioning from a BP lawyer, Brown was asked detailed questions about the emergency preparedness of the Deepwater rig, including what emergency materials were in the lifeboats. In response to many of the questions, Brown’s lawyer told the court that his client had suffered a severe head injury as a result of the explosion and would be unable to answer very specific questions.

At various points during the hearing, Transocean officials said that BP was responsible for certain tasks, while the sole BP official to testify raised questions that implied that Transocean bore more responsibility.

During the testimony of Steve Tink, BP’s health, safety and environmental manager, the atmosphere changed in the hearing room. People crowded in, but instead of taking any of the nearly 30 empty seats, they stood in the back and listened intently.

Tink’s testimony pointed special attention to a document that described the company’s safety plan. The precise content of the document was only broadly discussed, but prompted numerous questions. Tink claimed to have never seen the document, but it was later revealed that he wrote it.

“This document was done by my people,” he said

Tink said he was unable to answer many of the questions posed by the commission, stating they were not in his area of expertise.

The hearings are scheduled to resume at 8 a.m. Thursday and continue through Saturday.

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Kinh Van Nguyen, 69, sits in his captain’s chair aboard the Angela, his thick, wrinkled hands folded on his belly. He peers through the scuffed windshield of the wheelhouse that sits atop the 60-foot fishing boat moored with others at a Chalmette pier.

His fishing boat, and the others, have been stuck there for more than a month, ever since BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, causing thousands of barrels of the molasses-like toxic liquid to gush from the depths of the Gulf in what is becoming known as one of the the greatest man-made ecological catastrophe in U.S. history.

And he hasn’t made a dollar since.

Nguyen said, he and his wife, two of his 10 children and extended family now “have to eat very sparingly, until we get by.”

The disaster hits especially hard since it has come at the busiest, most profitable time of the year for fishermen, when typically “it’s about working day and night,’’ Nguyen said through an interpreter.

The spill has affected an estimated 13,000 commercial licensed fishermen in Louisiana, not including deckhands and crew, according to the Louisiana State Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

An estimated one-third of those fishermen are immigrants from Southeast Asia. Many like Nguyen, speak little or no English, and face the third major upheaval of their lives.

Their families had to start over in 1975 when they migrated to Louisiana from Vietnam. They had to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. And now, after a lifetime of fishing, their livelihood is uncertain.

“It’s really hard for us now and in the future,” said Eagle Mai, 45, who traveled from Houma to Westwego on Monday for a claims and health fair sponsored by U.S. Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, R-La., at the Alario Center.

Thien Nguyen, 49, a boat captain from New Orleans East, said, “Since the oil spill, we’re stuck. We cannot work. “Sometimes I’m upset with BP, but I worry. I worry for my life.”

Thien Nguyen, no relation to Kinh Nguyen, said he received his first claims payment from BP of $5,000. The amounts paid depend on whether one is a boat owner, captain or a deckhand. But his monthly expenses, including boat payments, total $9,000.

He said he can live for three months off his savings, but doesn’t know what he’ll do after that.

Nhat Tran, 48, of Westwego, said he’s already relying on friends to get by. As a deckhand, he was paid $1,000 by BP as a first claims payment, he said, but that’s simply not enough for Tran, who’s now borrowing money from friends to survive.

Jennifer Linh Vu, an aide to Congressman Cao and an interpreter for the event Monday, said the uncertainty is having a profound effect on the fishermen.

“It’s really rare for Vietnamese older men to actually show any kind of emotion because of their pride and the culture – I’ve seen them on the verge of tears, asking how they’re going to pay for their house, how they’re going to pay for their boat, their kids’ education. And then they’re like, in a month or two, how am I going to feed my family?”

She added the congressman “actually had a few people come to him and declare they want to commit suicide.”

The focus now for Cao’s office, which has partnered with Vietnamese nonprofits on the east side, is to help the fishermen understand their legal rights and how to file loss of income claims, while identifying the resources available.

At the event on Monday, not only were there volunteer interpreters to translate the briefing session, but other interpreters for the Vessels of Opportunity training session, which certifies fishermen to help with the oil cleanup, were offered. Tulane University provided a portable health unit on site for free health care for fishermen and their families. Catholic Charities donated food vouchers and state disaster food stamps were available.

Linh Vu said Cao’s initiative for the rapid-response team included representatives from his office and from two nonprofits in the east, Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association and Mary Queen of Vietnam Church Community Development Corp.

They’re traveling to places like New Orleans East, Houma and Venice to inform fishermen about the latest oil spill developments. They also assess the needs of the community and mediate with BP and government agencies on behalf of community members.

The fishermen face myriad obstacles, including lack of fluency in English, lack of understanding about the legal process and an innate distrust of government, Linh Vu said.

“I would say that coming from a communist country where government was rocky, they don’t really understand or trust the government. They don’t understand the resources that they have.”

Christina Wadwani, a community organizer for Mary Queen of Vietnam CDC, said her group has trained 15 Vietnamese to be claims interpreters in hopes that BP will hired them as claims agents. They’ve also identified one community member as a potential claims trainer.

“It’s taking small steps,” she said. “We have to push them to hire soon. The process will happen, but it’s just slow.”

Even fishermen who have gone through the certification training with interpreters for the Vessels of Opportunity program are not guaranteed work. Thien Nguyen and Toan Tran both have been certified; neither has been hired.

BP  “called me for stand-by,” said Toan Tran, “but I’m waiting for 10 days already, and they didn’t phone yet. I don’t know how long I will wait for more.”

Linh Vu said the Vietnamese community in New Orleans East has an advantage over other smaller, more dispersed communities.

In the secluded Vietnamese neighborhood on Chef Menteur Highway near Michoud Avenue, the Mary Queen of Vietnam Church anchors a community where three generations of Vietnamese families live amid a cluster of Vietnamese businesses and rows of bungalow houses – some with fishing boats parked in the driveways.

The residents here get information more easily through the church, she said. That’s where Kinh Nguyen gets his oil spill news.

Up the street at Kinh Nguyen’s modest home, his nets, boots and storage containers sit idle in the back of his pickup truck. Everything is ready to go, but there’s no work, said Nguyen, who’s been fishing all his life.

As the oil continues to spew, the long-term impact on all Gulf fishermen is uncertain, especially for those who don’t speak English, who are not educated and have been fishing all their lives, like Nguyen.

Advocates are thinking about the next step. “We’re going to need funds for job creation,” said Song Park, a community activist for VAYLA.

But as Linh Vu pointed out, that’s easier said than done for the older fishermen: “Many of them, when you look – they’re like, 50, 60, 70. How are they going to learn English and start again here?” she said.

“After the Vietnam War, they did it once, moving here to America. “So after Hurricane Katrina, they came back very quickly, I’d have to say, successfully. The thing is, they’re going through the same experience now.”

Linh Vu said Cao’s office is working on next steps: “Right now, we don’t have the answers.”

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Nearly 40 oyster fishermen met Tuesday with state officials, lawyers and a representative from an oyster crop insurance company at the University of New Orleans to discuss how the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has impacted their industry.

The Louisiana Oyster Task Force comprises officials from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and commercial fishermen. The task force, a division of Louisiana’s Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, hopes to meet with BP representatives next week to express concern about the future of the seafood industry.

Oil has been spotted on the beaches and coastal wetlands of Louisiana, forcing 13 of 28 oyster beds to close.

The fishermen are especially concerned about the chemical dispersant BP is using to quell the oil spill. Task force members said they were fearful that the chemical, Corexit, would limit the reproduction of oysters, a key product for the fishermen.

“There are a lot of ‘what ifs,’” said Dr. Jimmy Guidry, a public health officer. “There are a lot of unanswered questions.”

Patrick Banks, a marine fisheries biologist for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, shared a similar sentiment, but said it’s too early to tell if the chemical dispersants being used are having an effect on oyster reproduction.

Guidry said the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has submitted a seafood safety plan to the governor requesting that BP pay to test seafood for the next five to 10 years to determine if it is safe to eat, and help fund seafood marketing efforts. BP has already given the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board $2 million for public service messages saying that seafood is safe to eat.

“We’re trying to keep our market alive,” said Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board.

Lawyers at the meeting encouraged affected fishermen to file joint claims for loss of business. The claims may be the only way many of the fishermen will be compensated.

Robert Cerda, president of Crop Insurance Systems, explained that crop insurance was designed to protect against natural disasters and that the oil spill was excluded from insurance coverage.

“Crop insurance is not going to help,” said Cerda.

As a result, the fishermen voted at the meeting to request that the U.S. Department of Agriculture waive their insurance premium on their crops.

The federal government Monday declared a fisheries disaster for Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana per a request from the governors of Mississippi and Alabama. The declaration will allow the Gulf states to qualify for additional relief money from the government.

“The disaster determination will help ensure that the federal government is in a position to mobilize the full range of assistance that fishermen and fishing communities may need,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement.

Locke noted that the $2 billion fishing industry provides important jobs in the Gulf and is essential to the area’s culture and heritage. He assured business owners that the administration “stands with America’s fishermen, their families and businesses in impacted coastal communities during this challenging time.”

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Oil pollutes the water on Elmers Island on May 22, 2010. (Thaisi H. Da Silva/NYT Institute)

After contentious debate between the Environmental Protection Agency and BP regarding its use of a particular dispersant in the Gulf of Mexico, BP has agreed to lessen the amount it is using to help clean up the massive oil spill.

“They’ve asked us to scale back on the amount we’re using,” said Graham MacEwen, a spokesman for BP. He said the company made the decision Tuesday to comply with the EPA’s request.

BP will cut back its use of the dispersant Corexit, which it has been spraying in the Gulf, by 50 to 75 percent, MacEwen said. He said the company would make up for the decrease in the chemical’s use by increasing skimming the oil off the water and the laying of booms to block the oil.

The EPA feared that Corexit contained high levels of toxicity and offered a list of dispersants it deemed safe. MacEwen said BP didn’t use any of those because it couldn’t get them in the quantities required for the large-scale cleanup.

Meanwhile, in Jackson, Miss., thousands attended a memorial service for the 11 rig workers killed in the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20. The men were honored in a memorial service with tributes from country music stars and drilling company executives.

“This is the one of the most difficult days for many of us here,” said Steven Newman, chief executive of Transocean Ltd., the Swiss-based owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig. “But for the families of our 11 lost colleagues, this is just another of many difficult days.”

A new report from the Interior Department’s acting inspector general found that an inspector for the Minerals Management Service, which oversees oil-well drilling, admitted using crystal methamphetamine and said he might have been under the influence of the drug at work. The report cited a variety of violations of federal regulations and ethics rules at the agency’s Louisiana office, which has jurisdiction over the Deepwater Horizon well.

On Wednesday, BP will try to stop the leak with a “top kill” of the well. It includes pumping heavy drilling mud through a device that sits atop the oil-well opening at the sea floor, plugging the leak. BP began testing the “top kill” method Tuesday. If that fails, cement will be used instead.

The top kill method has been used before by BP, but never at the depths where the Deepwater Horizon well is leaking, nearly a mile below sea level. The chances of success are 60 to 70 percent, The Associated Press reported.

Earlier Tuesday, BP told the House subcommittee on energy and the environment that the company would be blacking out its live television feed during the top kill procedure on Wednesday. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., blasted BP, saying, “This BP blackout will obscure a vital moment in this disaster.” Later in day, the company backpedaled and said the live feed would continue.

On Friday, President Barack Obama will be making his second trip to Louisiana since the spill, following a host of administration officials who have come to the state.

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Lifelong resident Cheryl Barnhardt, 50, tears up during a Chalmette Town Hall meeting Monday night with BP representatives. Barnhardt asked, "Do people not realize how horrendous this can be?" BP representatives were on hand to discuss community concerns and answer questions. (Thaisi H. Da Silva/NYT Institute)

Erwin Menesses didn’t wait for the microphone to be passed to him.

“It’s not just money; it’s more than money!” he yelled. “I don’t see BP coming to help me save my heritage yet. That’s important to me just as any money.”

Menesses, a 43-year-old net maker, was one of more than 100 frustrated and angry audience members who attended a town hall meeting between BP representatives and a concerned community of St. Bernard Parish residents, fishermen and local officials on Monday night at the Frederick J. Sigur Civic Center.

Menesses, who spent his life catering to the commercial fishing industry, said that if fishermen aren’t working, he can’t make nets.

“You can’t replace me being able to teach my kid how to fish,” he told BP claims officer Alan Carpenter.

Carpenter, a Louisiana native, apologized to Menesses and said, “nobody can replace a heritage, but we’re going to do the best we can to help you make it through this circumstance.”

He said he recognized that $5,000, the maximum amount BP is offering at one time to commercial fishermen for loss of income, was not adequate.

“BP completely understands that the $5,000 reward will not compensate you all for your loss,” he said.

Many of the questions aimed at BP revolved around environmental concerns and claims for loss of income, while others just wanted to know how BP could have allowed the disaster to occur.

“It used to be catch and release, and now it’s catch and grease,” said Robert Campo, a commercial fisherman and resident of Shell Beach, La., where he runs Campo’s Marina, his family-owned and operated marina. Campo said his business has already been affected by the oil spreading along the Louisiana shoreline.

The meeting on Monday was the first of three town hall meetngs organized to discuss cleanup efforts and solutions. The next two meetings will be held Tuesday night and Wednesday night in Plaquemines Parish.

St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro, who had returned from a flyover earlier Monday, told the audience that the bulk of the oil was seen 19 miles off the southern tip of the Chandeleur Islands. The parish will set up monitoring areas at Breton Sound and Shell Beach, coastal areas near the parish that are at risk for contamination.

Taffaro said that during his morning flight, he also visited Point Lydia, an area already affected by the spill, where the grass was brown and dead because of the oil that had washed on shore. “This issue affects more than just commercial fishermen,” said Taffaro.

Taffaro and parish officials said they would continue to monitor the situation and patrol along Breton Sound and Shell Beach shores to catch the oil as it starts to wash up. Taffaro said a major concern is where the oil is headed.

“The plan of action that we have come up with and continue to push is to get as many resources and assets out into the water,” said Taffaro.

He said a skim boat had been sent from St. Bernard Parish Monday to the Chandeleur Islands to assess the damage and collected 72 barrels of oil. “That’s one boat on one day,” he said. “That’s a drop in a bucket to what’s actually behind it.”

U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Robert Forgit of the Incident Command in Houma said coast guard officials hope on Wednesday to stop the flow of oil from the site of the BP rig that exploded and burned on April 20.

Forgit said officials plan to plug the oil flow with mud, in a method known as a top kill. Officials will also continue to use dispersants and controlled burning, a method that has burned 68,000 barrels to date. The Coast Guard has applied 1.1 million feet of boom around the affected coastline.

“We are advising and encouraging BP to provide more resources,” Forgit said. “We are working as that regulatory authority to ensure that BP cleans up the oil and bring those beaches and marshes that were impacted back to the state that they were.”

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