A family rooted in the seafood business looks ahead (BP propaganda)

[The Straight Story]

BP reporters Tom Seslar and Paula Kolmar are on the ground in the Gulf, meeting the people most immediately affected by the oil spill. Read their regular updates.

A family rooted in the seafood business looks ahead


Betty and Elson Martin tell me they are worried. Her back was broken in a car accident three months ago, and he was diagnosed with bladder cancer a couple of weeks ago. Now they fear the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico threatens the seafood market and restaurant they've turned over to their three adult children.

Theirs is one of the many complex stories I'm encountering in the bayou country of southern Louisiana, just as BP employees are discovering all along the Gulf Coast as they work with local people to alleviate impacts of the oil spill.

The current chapter of the Martins' story began 26 years ago when Elson lost his job as an office worker for a tugboat company.

"Work opportunities got so bad that we had to find some way to survive," says Betty, more commonly known as "Miss Betty" in the community.

To make ends meet, Betty and Elson got up long before sunrise every morning, drove their two pickup trucks to a wholesale seafood market, loaded up and then headed off in opposite directions to park along roadsides and sell their iced offerings.

The roadside entrepreneurs were so successful that they eventually opened a restaurant and the adjoining retail seafood market. B&E Seafood in Cut Off, La., became a highly favored destination throughout the region.

Son Jeffrey says that is changing.

"It's not like a gradual falloff. Business has fallen off sharply, suddenly," he tells me as his parents nod in agreement. "People are afraid all seafood might be contaminated. But we would never sell anything except the finest and safest."
Betty also complains that the only shrimp now available are far too small to satisfy the demands of her recipes.

"All you can do is hope," Elson says.

"It's eating you up inside, not knowing what the future will bring," Jeffrey adds.

"There is no reason to hate BP," Betty says as the three Martins analyze the situation from rockers on the front porch of Elson and Betty’s home. (The Martins and their married children - Jeffrey, Tanya Cheramie and Dana Gros - all live on the same short street about three blocks from B&E Seafood. The six grandchildren live on this street too.)

"The oil spill was an accident," Elson says.

"This is an oilfield community," Jeffrey adds. “Everybody has somebody - a brother, a father - who works in the oilfield. People understand."

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In this section:

The Mississippi coast
Beach status
Ballet at sea
A local newspaper
I saw the oil spill
Family seafood business
Chasing tar balls
The big picture
America's coastal wetlands
Balancing act
BP volunteer coordinator
Concern about the future
There's nothing simple
Defending Dauphin Island
Working together
Vessels of opportunity

[blondeatlast]

1. I sincerely (not sarcasm, either) hope that BP paid that couple

a good chunk of their filthy dough. I want them to survicve and thrive.

But I do hope they realize, if so, they sold their souls a little bit, too.

I know how PR like that works and I can see right through BP's.