Reporting from St. Bernard Parish, La. — There's good money to be made by grounded fishermen hired by BP to protect the Louisiana shoreline from the massive oil sneaking toward its marshes and beaches. But just who gets the job is a source of brewing tensions.
Every day, hundreds of fishermen pile onto boats to lay reels of white and orange booms. In St. Bernard Parish, a crew member can make $36 an hour and a captain can make $46, plus $650 a day for the use of their boats. And that tally makes David Palmer, a 33-year-old fisherman with three kids, hopping mad.
"It's so messed up it's not even funny," said Palmer, a fisherman here whose turn to earn that money doesn't come until next month. "A person can't wait 30 to 40 days to go work."
Fishermen across the gulf have seen their livelihoods dry up since the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon. The number of fishermen affected could reach into the tens of thousands in Louisiana alone — there were 11,191 commercial fishing permits issued in the state in 2009. Each license represents a captain and about 2.5 deckhands, said George Barisich, president of the United Commercial Fishermen's Assn.
But the ocean-faring containment jobs are not plentiful enough to help people such as Palmer, who sat in the shade underneath his yellow house, which is hoisted on pylons in the swampy grasses of St. Bernard Parish. Two of his friends, Oliver Rudesill and Donny Smith, complain they haven't gotten a cent either and are seething watching others earn hundreds of dollars a day.
The frustration stretches to other locations, including Plaquemines Parish, where Acy Cooper, vice president of the Louisiana Shrimp Assn., says that only about a quarter of the men who want to work are getting hired.
Palmer and other fishermen complain that some workers are getting paid to go out on the water for several consecutive days, while others aren't going out at all. They say that BP, which had promised to pay each fisherman $5,000 a month for compensation, is dallying on handing out checks. And they said that men who haven't fished in years are getting paid to work on prevention teams.
BP spokesman Bryan Ferguson said 4,700 loss-of-income claims had been filed, and that the company pays up to $5,000 a month on these claims. There are more than 70 workers processing the claims, he said, and processors are making payments as quickly as they can.
"If we had more materials, more people would go out," said Craig Taffaro, president of St. Bernard Parish. "We're trying to get as many of these people to have some kind of income during this period as possible."
Taffaro has repeatedly asked the government for more booms so that more fishermen can be employed.
Ferguson says there's no shortage of booms.
About 284 miles of booms have been deployed, according to information given Wednesday to a congressional panel probing the spill. Ferguson said an additional 265 miles are available.
BP is employing 9,300 local people on the water throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida, Ferguson said. He did not know how many of those employed were fishermen, but said that hiring decisions were made on a local level. Local parish leaders said the fishermen were being chosen at random by picking names out of a hat.
St. Bernard Parish has each boat go out for three days and then return to make room for others. Fisherman Kim Alfonso has worked nine days but isn't sure about the future.
"It could be weeks before I get to go out again. I tell you what, I'd rather be fishing," he said. On a good week of fishing, Alfonso could make $6,000.
Getting antsy just sitting around, some are throwing up their hands. Every day in Plaquemines Parish, a crowd forms around the makeshift office where BP is handing out checks. "Nobody knows what's happening," said Andy Le, a fisherman from Venice, La. "That's why we're still here, waiting."