THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS
THE MESS IN THE GULF
SUNDAY, JULY 11, 2010
A17
Winning over skeptics, one oyster at a time New Orleans shucker aims to ward off worries BY SUSAN SAULNY THE NEW YORK TIMES
NEW ORLEANS — Keith Chancley, the senior shucker at one of the oldest oyster bars in the French Quarter, leaned against the cold counter during lunch hour with a knife in idle hands and nothing to shuck. Plenty of fat Louisiana shellfish — procured by the hardest means — rested in chopped ice. COURTESY PHOTO VIA AP But nobody wanted them. Hospitable habitat: Fish swim near the PC Barge and Towers off Pensacola, Fla., in this 2007 photo by Jim Meyers. “Y’all having oysters today?” Chancley chimed brightly to several visitors who ambled in to scan the menu at Felix’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar, a family business since the 1940s near The Mica was a 200-year- and the courts would likely de- west of the Mississippi River, Bourbon and Iberville streets, old, two-masted schooner that cide the matter. archaeologists have found rem- crossroads of the tourist unisank before 1850, according to “I would say for the folks nants of a colony set up by Jean verse here. a report by the Minerals Man- working on cultural resources Lafitte, the pirate who helped Dave Morgan, from New agement Service. It was discov- — or any resource — docu- Andrew Jackson win the Battle York City and a Gulf of Mexico ered about 2,500 feet deep in ment everything,” McMahan of New Orleans. seafood skeptic, asked, “Now BY CAIN BURDEAU the Mississippi Canyon during advised. Archaeologists hope to avoid these ain’t tainted with BP oil, work to lay a pipeline. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Archaeologists are fanning the mistakes made during the huh?” In 2002, the Mardi Gras out to assess the spill’s effect. Exxon Valdez cleanup. Here was the moment ChanTIMBALIER ISLANDS, La. wreck was discovered by oil- The Gulf shoreline is chock full “We learned from Exxon Val- cley, 51, had been anticipating. — Not just flora and fauna are field workers in even deeper of history and to a trained eye, dez that there were incidents It happens every day. A masgetting caked in oil. So is the waters: about 4,000 feet down the bounty springs out. of looting by cleanup workers, ter of performance, Chancley “This is like Christmas Day equipment being brought in, knows how to diffuse tension Gulf of Mexico’s barnacled his- about 35 miles off the Louisitory of pirates, sea battles and ana coast. The wreck got its for me,” said Courtney Cloy, destroying the ground,” said with humor, how to get a reWorld War II shipwrecks. name from the huge pipeline an archaeologist mapping the John Rawls, marine archaeolo- luctant customer to end up The Gulf is lined with wood- project where it was found: the Timbalier Islands, a barrier gist with Earth Search Inc., a eating a couple dozen on the en shipwrecks, American-In- Mardi Gras Gas Transmission chain on Louisiana’s central firm hired by BP to do archaeo- half shell, making an afternoon dian shell midden mounds, System. coast. “I am finding ceramics logical surveys. of it. World War II casualties, pirate Researchers with Texas all over the surface out here.” In one incident, clean-up But the hard sell has gotcolonies, historic hotels and old A&M University believe the The ceramics may have workers stumbled across a ten so much harder, with the fishing villages. Researchers ship may have been a gun run- washed in from a shipwreck, prehistoric Chugachmiut Deepwater Horizon oil disaster now fear this treasure seeker’s ner or British trader during the or come from a hotel or home burial cave containing wooden forcing closure of some — but dream is threatened by BP’s War of 1812. that once stood on the badly artifacts. not all — of Louisiana’s famed deepwater well blowout. BP played a part in finding eroded islands. “Clean-up workers ... re- oyster beds. Within 20 miles of the well, the U-166. Crews surveying For now, the Timbaliers are moved some of the bones and “Well, there’s just a little bit,” there are several significant a pipeline project for BP and safe: Oil contamination has then called a supervisor,” Mc- Chancley said. “Helps ’em slide shipwrecks — discovered by oil Shell in the Mississippi Canyon been modest and clean-up Mahan said. He said Exxon se- down easy.” companies’ underwater robots region came across it in 2001. crews are being kept at bay. curity collected more of the Everybody had a good chuck— and oil is most likely beginOn July 30, 1942, the GerBut archaeologists have grave bones and state troopers raked le. Then Chancley paused a man submarine torpedoed the concerns for other locations. remains into a body bag and beat and added: “Seriously, I ning to cascade on them. “People think of them as be- passenger-freighter Robert E. Oil has begun washing up carted them away. wouldn’t be serving them if ing lost, but with the deep-sea Lee, and then itself was sunk by on Pensacola’s beaches, where “The site was pretty much they weren’t good. I couldn’t diving innovations we have to- depth charges from the Navy in 1886, Geronimo, the Apache trashed,” he said. do that in good conscience, day, these shipwrecks are easily escort PC-566. warrior, was imprisoned in Fort accessible,” said Steven AnthoThis week, oil washed ashore Pickens, the largest of four forts ny, president of the Maritime in the Florida Panhandle, where built to defend Pensacola Bay. Archaeological and Historical the USS Oriskany aircraft carOn the Mississippi coast, Society. rier lies off the coast of Pensa- Ship Island was the only deep“If this oil congeals on the cola. The Navy sank it in May water harbor between Mobile bottom, it will be dangerous 2006 to make an artificial reef. Bay and the Mississippi River for scuba divers to go down Sen. John McCain once flew for 300 years; thousands of Euthere and explore,” Antho- bombing runs off its deck. ropeans first set foot in North ny said. “The spill will stop The task of examining the America there, earning the investigations.” wrecks for damage is begin- nickname Plymouth Rock of The wrecks include two ning, though it’s uncertain the Gulf Coast. 19th-century wooden ships whether BP will be held reDuring the Civil War, Ship known as the “Mica Wreck” sponsible for ruining under- Island was Union Adm. David and the “Mardi Gras Wreck.” water sites. Farragut’s base of operations, The German submarine U-166 Dave McMahan, Alaska’s where he successfully launched and ships sunk by other Ger- state archaeologist and an Exx- an attack on New Orleans in man sub during World War II on Valdez oil spill veteran, said April 1862. federal environmental surveys are in the spill’s footprint. On Grand Terre Island, just
Next worry: Survival of the shipwrecks Oil glaze could stymie exploration of history
Anxiety runs high among Vietnamese Queen of Vietnam Development Corp., formed to help the community after Hurricane Katrina. “But they’re very resilient people, used to rebuilding. They’ve been put to the BY SHARON COHEN test several times.” THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Just as some families were getting back on their feet, they have to scramble again. NEW ORLEANS — On a Tom Huynh arrived as a war steamy summer morning, Minh Chu would normally be far out refugee. Eventually, he found in the Gulf, hauling in huge his niche in tuna and escolar loads of shrimp in the blisterfishing, earning enough moning sun. Instead, he’s standing ey to buy a house, help three AP PHOTO in an alley, clutching a paper brothers and sisters through ticket. Idle since April: Tom Huynh college and become a miniemployment agency for the Chu is a deck hand, or he was and his boat, Morning Glory, until two months ago when the docked at Dulac, La. men of his hometown of Phan Thiet. spill put him out of work. BeHuynh has little to do these fore that, he had been saving Vietnamese community here to bring his wife, Nguyen, from who find themselves wrestling days so he drives two hours evVietnam to America. He was with cultural and language ery few days to maintain Mornsending her money regularly barriers even as they face the ing Glory, his 75-foot vessel. since they wed in 2007. Now he threat of financial disaster. “Some days I wake up and I needs help just to buy food. By some accounts, about a think I’m still on the boat,” he And that’s what brings Chu third of those trawling the Gulf says through an interpreter. “I to a Vietnamese community waters are Southeast Asian, miss what I do. That’s all.” center, among dozens of peo- mostly Vietnamese. One nonMinh Chu tries to remain upple lined up hours before the profit group estimates 80 per- beat; he has overcome obstacles opening when 25 coveted stubs cent of the 40,000 Southeast before. He worked in factories will be exchanged for $100 gro- Asians along the Gulf Coast, in Illinois and Arkansas, even cery vouchers from Catholic could be hurt by the spill. though a childhood grenade Charities. Many of the Vietnamese accident left his left hand disHe’s grateful to have made speak little or no English, figured. When the jobs dried the cut, but anxious, too. Chu making it hard to navigate the up there, he moved to New Orhas worked since arriving in bureaucratic maze of loans, leans and started over. the U.S. 32 years ago. He can’t claims and regulations. Their He has received two $1,250 bear being idle. odds of finding new jobs are checks from BP, he said, but “I feel like I am lost,” says slim, considering the tough wonders how he’ll make up his Chu, 52. “Sometimes I worry economy and their limited lan- annual income. He hasn’t seen and I cannot sleep. I’m think- guage and job skills. And for his wife in two years. Now any ing about how am I going to some, there’s yet another hur- reunion has been put off. But he doesn’t dwell on that. make money to sponsor my dle: They’re paid cash, so they wife, thinking about how am I don’t have documents needed Every night he phones his wife going to pay my bills.” to apply for compensation from with a $5 calling card and offers The oil spill that has forced BP’s $20 billion aid fund. comforting words. thousands of Gulf fisherman “It is more complicated for “I tell her I look for a job,” he off their boats has been es- them,” said Tuan Nguyen, says with a slight smile, “and I pecially cruel to those in the deputy director of the Mary tell her not to worry.”
Community hit especially hard by fishing bans
NEW YORK TIMES PHOTO
Ready wit: Keith Chancley works the oyster bar — and the crowd — at Felix’s Restaurant.
man. I’m a professional, and we have a reputation to uphold. I don’t have time to be messing with bad oysters.” Convinced, Morgan tilted a half-shell into his mouth and gulped. “That’s great!” he said. His friend, Derrick Middleton, ordered as well, and they both promised they’d be back for more. John Rotonti, Felix’s owner, would not let the bar go dry. He bought oysters from Florida and Texas to supplement the meager harvest from Louisiana. Still, a shucker can only do so much in the face of an environmental disaster of mammoth proportions. Close to closing time, Chancley, who on a good day last year might have made $200 in tips, took $4 out of the tip bucket after the total was split with the rookie shucker (three years on the job) and the novice shucker (a dishwasher in training). “We’ve got to take the good with the bad,” said Chancley, a 35-year veteran. “I tell the other shuckers around town — we’re a close group — just weather the storm. Take it as a time to heal your cramped hands and your soul.”
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