60-Second Interview with Kuzma Tesvich, Oyster Fisherman

I’ve been an oyster fisherman since birth,” said Kuzma Tesvich who with his mother and brother who have been harvesting and trawling oysters for decades off the coast of Louisiana.

Is this the worst you’ve seen?

I haven’t seen anything to this magnitude and we still don’t know the full extent of the damage. We were shut down for two weeks after Katrina. We lost some but not all of our oyster beds then. What makes it difficult now is that we don’t know how long we’ll be out of business. Will the oil damage the reproductive systems?  Will it mess up the marshes?

What is the economic impact?

That remains to be seen.  There are hundreds-in the high hundreds-of fishermen who aren’t doing anything, but waiting around to see what happens. Many of these are mom and pop operations. We’re all living with uncertainty.

Are they signing up to help BP?

They have so many boats signed up that I hear you can work for a day and then you have to wait two or three days before you get another turn.

What does the crystal ball look like?

My wife asked me the same thing. I told her to smash the crystal ball. The future is not for us to know. It is a hard way to make a living, but I can’t see doing anything else.

According to the Governor’s office, there are 6,400 licensed commercial fishers in the impacted parishes. There is a significant number of oystermen, shrimpers, and fishermen who will potentially need short-term assistance due to a temporary loss of livelihood. The Greater New Orleans Foundation has responded with the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund.