Link to Reference: JOHN SURRATT, The Mississippi Press, December 09, 2005

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Highlights:
- Seafood from the Mississippi Sound and the Gulf of Mexico is safe to eat and overall water quality of the Coast's bays and estuaries is good, despite the debris deposited in the water by Hurricane Katrina
- Preliminary test results by DEQ, Folmar said the state Department of Marine Re-sources, Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration indicated that the overall water quality was good, that there no metals, PCBs or pesticides in the seafood to warrant seafood advisories. And, he added, bacteria levels were much lower than expected.
- Tests did indicate low dioxin levels in the sediment in the Escatawpa and Pascagoula River area and in St. Louis Bay near Bayou LaCroix and low dissolved oxygen concentrations in the Escatawpa and St. Louis Bay and elevated nutrient levels in Bayou Casotte and Back Bay Biloxi.

OCEAN SPRINGS -- Seafood from the Mississippi Sound and the Gulf of Mexico is safe to eat and overall water quality of the Coast's bays and estuaries is good, despite the debris deposited in the water by Hurricane Katrina, the director of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality said Thursday.

Henry Folmar, who oversees the DEQ's laboratory activities, announced the news about Coast seafood and its waterways during a Thursday night post-Katrina update meeting on the seafood industry and recreational fishing at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory.

The announcement was part of a "good news, bad news" presentation, which was a central theme during the entire program. The presentation was held to give area residents and commercial fishermen an idea of how the Coast's seafood and recreational fishing industries have faired in the wake of Katrina's Aug. 29 assault on the Coast.

Katrina's passage across the Coast raised concerns by many environmentalists, commercial fishermen, biologists and residents about the quality of Coastal waters and seafood.

But according to preliminary test results by DEQ, Folmar said the state Department of Marine Re-sources, Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration indicated that the overall water quality was good, that there no metals, PCBs or pesticides in the seafood to warrant seafood advisories. And, he added, bacteria levels were much lower than expected.

However, Folmar said tests did indicate low dioxin levels in the sediment in the Escatawpa and Pascagoula River area and in St. Louis Bay near Bayou LaCroix and low dissolved oxygen concentrations in the Escatawpa and St. Louis Bay and elevated nutrient levels in Bayou Casotte and Back Bay Biloxi.

Folmar also said fish kills were found in several areas of the Pascagoula, which he said were primarily caused by vegetation being blown into the river and dissolving the oxygen.

But while the Coast's seafood is in good shape, there are few people and equipment to harvest it.

GCRL scientist Jim Franks told the residents that the damage to the Coast's commercial and recreational fishing industries could total an estimated $170 million to $200 million, not including the damages to structures like marinas, piers, wharves and commercial support businesses, which he said could total an extra $10 million.

"Preliminary information based on interviews with 25 percent of the commercial fisherman indicate that the total estimated damage to the fleet is $50 million," Franks said. "Interviews with 30 percent of the processors and dealers put the total estimated damage to Katrina at $120 million."

A similar problem exists in the Coast's oyster industry, which took a major hit from the hurricane.

Bradley Randall, DMR biological program coordinator for shellfish, said preliminary reports indicated that 90 to 95 percent of the Coast's legal --three inches or larger -- oyster crop was killed by Katrina.

"The rest were scattered to where we can't find them," he said. "But the spats (oysters less than legal size) survived."

He said oyster larvae, which formed before Katrina hit, managed to stay in place, leaving the potential for another oyster crop to develop. But Randall said the spats won't reach legal size for another 18 to 24 months, meaning that the next money oyster crop could be two years away.

"It could be sooner than that," he said. "We're still investigating. We could find other beds that were never affected by the storm."

Randall said, however that Coast's offshore areas could benefit from the storm, because the water churned up by the hurricane could help refurbish the fisheries and stir up and redistribute nutrients. It could also create new areas for oyster larvae to attach themselves and induce them to spawn.

But even if the oyster beds were in good shape, the facilities to process and sell the crop would be few and far between. Many of the processing and dealer facilities were severely damaged by Katrina.

"Right now, we only have one processor in operation in Pass Christian," Randall said. "And it's processing Texas oysters."