FISHERMEN compensation from oil spills: why do oyster farmers double shrimpers?

Oil spill compensation czar Alan Feinberg is poised to announce more compensation for Gulf of Mexico fishers affected by the oil spill.

Slick tastes

It is clear that the science of how fish and fishing are affected by oil spills and slicks, and the attendant scales of compensation remain unclear.

Compensated has been based on economic impact amounting to a maximum of double business’ documented 2010 losses in exchange for waiving their rights to sue or seek future spill compensation.

Yet, oyster harvesters get a different deal — as much as seven times their 2010 losses — owing to lingering effects of the spill.

Shrimpers are no different, say the shrimpers’ attorneys. Shrimp migrate as juveniles to estuaries still tainted with oil.

It seems Feinberg is all ears and is poised to change the two-times-losses formula.

And so he should be. In Alaska, post-Valdez, it took five years for the price of salmon to return to pre-spill levels, and four years after the spill, the herring population completely disappeared and hasn’t returned since.

So far, the “$20 billion fund” has the fund has paid $5.5 billion to 213,408 claimants, While over 300,000 have been denied compensation.