All areas of coastal Louisiana aren’t closed to inshore shrimping…yet.  But oil is coming ashore at Grand Isle, Elmer’s Isle (pictured above), and at the Fourchon beaches, so who knows how long we can keep BP’s mess out of our coastal marshes.  We know that crude oil will kill the oyster reefs, the tidal-zone creatures like tube worms and hermit crabs, and the birds & turtles it blankets, but we don’t know how long the chemical dispersants used on the oil will persist in the water column, or if the chemicals will migrate into the food chain.  I’m sad….for the fishermen, for the dying wildlife, for the environment overall, and for our food culture.  A friend reports that Charlie’s Seafood will stop serving oyster poboys as of Monday (5/24), except by special request, and the price will be $20 per sandwich.

(In case you’ve been living under a rock or are far from Louisiana, here’s a link to the Times-Picayune’s news roundup of the devastating, still-flowing crude oil spill at BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling location.  The surface slick alone is more than 14,600 square miles, or greater than the area of Maryland & Delaware combined.)