The tension is rising among local seafood workers as they watch the oil from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill off of Louisiana slowly make its way across the Gulf of Mexico toward North Florida.
The oil, which is pouring out of an underwater oil well nearly a mile below the surface at a rate of over 200 thousand gallons a day, is threatening the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Florida.
Local fishermen are terrified that the oil could devastate the local seafood industry if it makes it into the Apalachicola Bay and they are ready to go to work doing whatever they can to help stop the oil. Well over 100 concerned seafood workers and local leaders turned out at the Franklin County Courthouse Annex Monday night to listen to emergency officials in the hopes that they would hear a specific plan to combat the oil spill.
Most were disappointed – because even though there is a plan being formulated and reassessed on an almost hourly basis, it is not yet ready to be put into place.
Local emergency management officials are constantly updating the oil spill plan and have created a local committee made up of seafood workers, dealers and other citizens with specific expertise to fine tune the plan and set priorities for when the work does begin. Much of the plan will be dependent on the conditions of the winds and seas at the time the oil is in our area.
In the meantime necessary equipment like boom and oil boats are being stationed along the Gulf Coast so that it can be deployed as quickly as possible when it is needed. Oil boom could be placed in Franklin County as early as Wednesday morning.
Currently people with boats are being asked to sign up in case their boats can be used to help deploy boom or in some other way combat the oil spill. People can contact the Franklin County Seafood workers Association to register their vessels – there is also a registration form below this story.
The Emergency Management office has also set up a hotline where people can get the most up to date information on the oil spill 24 hours a day.
You can reach the hotline at 653-9877.
Other action that has been taken is that the Governor has placed Franklin County as well as 12 other counties on the Gulf under a state of emergency and the local EOC has also issued a local state of emergency.
The Franklin County Emergency Management office is now on level 2 activation.
Currently the Apalachicola Riverkeeper are coordinating local volunteer efforts.
They are adding a page to their website where folks can sign up to help.
You can find their website at www.apalachicolariverkeeper.org.
The Seafood workers association has also made a request that the Department of Agriculture open the entire bay to oyster harvesting so that oystermen might be able to make some money in case should happen.There has been no response yet to that request.
Emergency Management coordinator Pam Brownell said that her office is working hard to protect Franklin County but we’ve all got to work together and do the best we can to make sure this county survives.
Vessel of Opportunity Information Sheet
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