For decades, African-Americans owned hundreds of boats that jammed the point a la Hache Marina. Before Katrina hit the number had shrunk to about fifty. Today, just half remain…a small fleet steered by aging captains.
And now, fresh worry that the entire community — a way of life — could disappear all together… the oil spill finishing off what Katrina started…
For 39 seasons Byron Encalade has trawled these waters — the place where 3 generations of his family feel most at home.
After Katrina, Byron says a lot of fishermen lost their businesses when promised government checks never showed up. Byron took out huge loans, and invested every penny he could find back into his business.
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And this was gonna be the summer — the summer when all that investment would finally pay off.
it’s the same story 50 miles east in Dulac, Louisiana….where Vietnamese-Americans’ boats are docked. These fishers catch tuna and wahoo in open waters — waters that are still off limits because of the oil.
Boatmen have waited months for work. Their yellow card proves they’ve been trained for the cleanup, but just last week an announcement came in that fewer and fewer boats are needed now that the flow of oil has stopped.
And so they line up at dawn hoping for food coupons offered by the church…
The fishermen have nothing to do, but Father Vien and Byron Encalade have urgent business.
Both communities believe they were mistreated, under-compensated and left out when Katrina dollars were dispersed.
They don’t want to let that happen again with this disaster. So, they decided to join forces…
The two leaders met for for the first time and formed a new coalition demanding “a seat at the table” wherever decisions about compensation are made.
Byron still worries that despite BP’s promise to “make it right”, the corporation will soon fade from the gulf and even their twenty billion won’t be enough to repair the damage.
“I mean, it sounds good. you know, ‘we gonna be here till this is finished.’
that’s what the ads say, the commercials say”, Byron laments.
Byron is willing to wait and see if BP really can make it right. Though, at his age, he says there’s not much choice to do anything else.
“If we got to go camp out on the doors of Baton Rouge or Congress, that’s what we gonna do. We’re not goin’ away. This is— this is ours.”