One year after Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto‌ oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto 90-year-old oyster business
7/11/11 10:15 AM
One year after Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto 90-year-old oyster business Published: Sunday, June 26, 2011, 1:00 AM
By
Updated: Monday, June 27, 2011, 10:15 AM
Brett Anderson, The Times-Picayune
Nick Collins pulled a dredge up alongside his oyster boat, numbly resigned to finding his worst fears realized. "I knew there were going to be dead oysters, " he said after emptying a load of shells onto a metal work table at the bow of the Broad & Tracy, the largest of his family's three-boat fleet. "It's still sad." Collins ran a dull knife through a pile large enough to fill the trunk of a fuel-efficient sedan. After several minutes of rooting around, occasionally pausing to inspect an oyster or clam shell with his gloved hand, Collins was able to unearth only two Enlarge
David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune
live oysters. That meager catch, however, was not
Dead oysters on the Collins Camanada Bay reef near Grand Isle Friday April 22, 2011.
the main cause of his disappointment.
Shell Shocked: Collins family oyster business 1 year after the oil
It had taken Collins 3 1/2 hours to arrive at Snail
spill gallery (8 photos)
Bay, which on a map sits roughly halfway between Port Sulphur, the industrial town on the west bank of the Mississippi River, and Golden Meadow, the
village on Bayou Lafourche where most of the Collins family has lived for generations and his starting point for this mid-May excursion. Of the more than 2,000 oyster bed leases owned by the Collins family, whose Collins Oyster Co. was started nearly a century ago by Levy Collins Sr., Nick's great-grandfather, the ones in Snail Bay usually are among the most fertile. That at least was until a year ago, when the Davis Pond Freshwater Diversion Structure was opened in the hopes that the rush of Mississippi River water it allowed in would push oil from the 2010 BP spill out of the area's delicate coastal wetlands. Collins knew the resulting drop in the water's salinity would spell doom for most of the
file:///Users/Ann/Desktop/One%20year%20after%20Gulf%20of%20Mexico‌%20to%20hang%20onto%2090-year-old%20oyster%20business.webarchive
Page 1 of 12
One year after Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto‌ oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto 90-year-old oyster business
7/11/11 10:15 AM
oysters on his Snail Bay leases. His mission this day was to see what the future held. "I came out here today to see if I had a spat take, " Collins said as he picked his way through another dredge load of dead oysters. Spats occur when free-swimming oyster larvae attach themselves to hard surfaces, often other oyster or clam shells, to grow. "If there was a healthy spat take, " Collins explained after prying open another dead oyster, "I'd see 20, 30, 40, maybe even 50 inside there, a bunch of little red dots. Out of 100 spats, maybe three or four will make it. But if I have three or four oyster (spats) on every shell, in three or four years I'm going to have dredge loads of live oysters. "But I don't see any spat." ........ Earl Melancon Jr., professor of biological sciences at Nicholls State University, said Snail Bay experienced "100percent mortality" of its oysters due to the infusion of fresh water following the BP oil spill. A month after Collins' trip, tests Melancon conducted in Snail Bay showed there was a spat set. "It's not a stong set, but it's a fair set, " Melancon said. He called the discovery "the very first signs of life on those reefs since the freshwater diversions over a year ago. But these oysters are so small and so vulnerable that you're looking at three years before they're harvestable." Under normal circumstances, the presence of so many dead oysters would have been reason enough for heartache. The ones of harvestable size, of which there appeared to be many, would have represented the fruits of a years-long nurturing process that began after the first successful spat take following Hurricane Katrina, whose massive tidal surge tore through oyster beds along Louisiana's eastern coastline. The
More on this story BP oil spill threatens a Lafourche oysterman's way of life BP exec says oil company has learned from failures in Gulf oil spill Shrimpers air gripes about low prices, imports in Belle Chasse New Orleans chefs forced to get creative as Gulf seafood supply dwindles in wake of oil spill
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries estimates the storm killed 70 percent of the region's oysters. For oyster fishers, hurricanes hold a cruel irony: The waves that cause so much destruction on land can leave a silver lining for the future along the floors of the violently stirred coastal waters they travel. Through a kind of natural-occurring cleansing process that wipes oyster beds clean of dead grass and mud, storms can help create, albeit after years of patience and labor, even healthier environments for oysters to grow. file:///Users/Ann/Desktop/One%20year%20after%20Gulf%20of%20Mexico‌%20to%20hang%20onto%2090-year-old%20oyster%20business.webarchive
Page 2 of 12
One year after Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto‌ oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto 90-year-old oyster business
7/11/11 10:15 AM
The oysters die, but beds wiped clean of dead grass and mud allow oysters "to come back faster and grow faster, " explained Melancon. "Something like that can be beneficial if it happens periodically."
By the time of the oil spill, Snail Bay was nearing the end stage of this natural phenomenon. Had the oysters survived the measures taken to combat the oil, they would have been harvested in September and replanted in nearby Caminada Bay. There, the oysters reach select-grade maturity in the typically higher salinity water in time to meet the increased demand of the holiday season. "You see how this big one's pretty, but these three are kind of skinny and flat?" Collins asked, holding David Grunfeld / The Times-Picayune Levy Collins unties the Capt. Wilbert oyster lugger before heading out to Snail Bay.
up a gnarled, mud-dripping cluster of oysters. "I would have broke them off and left them till next year. They'd (have) all been grade-A oysters."
Collins tossed the oysters overboard and wiped a forearm across his stubbled face. His tan appeared to have deepened in the few hours since arriving on Snail Bay. A grandfather at 39, Collins isn't shy about his burdens or his distaste for authority. Both add an edge to his boyish, frequently flashed smile, which one imagines is as useful for getting into trouble as out of it. "Whether it's the fresh water or dispersants, it's all due to the oil spill, because without the oil spill, I would have sold these puppies this year, " Collins said, standing over yet another mound of dead oysters. The Katrina losses were easier to take because, as he put it, "Mother Nature always gives you it back. What BP can't do is give me anything back." ........ The 2010 oyster season was supposed to bring the Collins Oyster Co.'s lean post-Katrina years to an end, thanks in large part to the restored health of the beds in Snail Bay. The fishing closures triggered by the oil spill dashed those hopes, and the 2011 season is proving to be even more grim. Oyster production in Louisiana was down more than 55 percent in 2010 compared to 2009, according to Wildlife and Fisheries, putting Louisiana No. 2, behind Washington state, as the country's top domestic oyster producer. The
file:///Users/Ann/Desktop/One%20year%20after%20Gulf%20of%20Mexico‌%20to%20hang%20onto%2090-year-old%20oyster%20business.webarchive
Page 3 of 12
One year after Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto‌ oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto 90-year-old oyster business
7/11/11 10:15 AM
same period shows a nearly 50-percent dip in dockside value as well. The oyster catch the first five months of 2011 was 18 percent of 2010's total and just below 9 percent of 2009's, according to Wildlife and Fisheries.
Industry observers believe the influx of fresh water from the Bonne Carre and Morganza
Oyster harvester video profile: How the Gulf oil spill has affected me
spillways, which were opened this spring to
Times-Picayune video profiles Nick Collins, a fourth-generation oysterman
relieve pressure on levees as the Mississippi River reached historically high levels, will cause even greater damage to this year's Louisiana oyster crop.
The Collins family, however, does not expect to be greatly affected by the spillway openings. While they've been able to fish market-size oysters in some areas west of Bayou Lafourche, the kill-offs elsewhere have ground their business to a virtual halt. Collins' stepmother, Beatriz "Betty" Collins, and accountant Melissa Kiffe are the only employees still drawing salaries. In mid-May, Collins said he was on his sixth week of living off of $250-a-week unemployment checks. "We (had) about a $300,000 to $500,000 (per year) business, " said Wilbert Collins Sr., Nick's 73-year-old father and patriarch of the family business. "They broke the company." ........ Wilbert Collins was sitting at the dining-room table in his Golden Meadow home a week after the trip to Snail Bay. He has a fondness for Guyabera-style shirts and Marlboro Golds, and is something of an elder statesmen among Louisiana oyster fishers. This is particularly true around Bayou Lafourche. As every Collins family member is quick to point out, the area was once a bustling capital of the oyster industry. For reasons having to do with coastal erosion and the lure of betterpaying jobs in the oil and gas industries that have helped hasten it, the number of oyster fishers around Golden Meadow has shrunk to the point where, as Wilbert Collins said, "We're pretty much all that's left." Since the Collins Oyster Co. ceased its regular operations in May 2010, the family has pursued monetary compensation through both the Gulf Coast Claims Facility and the courts. Both Wilbert and Nick Collins said they've received individual payments for income lost as employees of the family business, Nick's totaling just under $15,000 and Wilbert's just under $10,000. Neither amount comes close to equaling what they would have made had the oil spill not thrown the Louisiana seafood industry into disarray, they said.
The Collins Oyster Co. has also received payments file:///Users/Ann/Desktop/One%20year%20after%20Gulf%20of%20Mexico‌%20to%20hang%20onto%2090-year-old%20oyster%20business.webarchive
Page 4 of 12
One year after Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto‌ oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto 90-year-old oyster business
7/11/11 10:15 AM
totaling about $48,000 in separate checks from BP and the Gulf Coast Claims Facility , Wilbert Collins said. He cites numerous reasons he considers the amount "a pittance, " including the loss of future income, loss of food caught for subsistence and damage caused to oyster beds as well as the reputations of Louisiana seafood and the Collins Oyster brand. "I could have used maybe $150,000 for every six months, " Wilbert Collins said. "I could have kept the (eight- to 10-member) crew going. I could David Grunfeld / The Times-Picayune Wilbert Collins of Golden Meadow laments over his family's 90 year oyster business.
have paid my expenses, just like as if I had been oystering. It wouldn't have been a dead stop." According to Gulf Coast Claims Facility
administrator Kenneth Feinberg, the formula used to calculate payments to oyster fishers offers four times the amount of proven losses suffered in 2010. Feinberg said the claims facility is working to create "a more generous methodology" to calculate oyster fishers' losses, one that would "reflect the fact that the future of oysters in the Gulf as we speak is still, over a year later, very uncertain." Feinberg's office said this week that the new methodology should be put into place by mid-summer. He added that even claimants who signed releases preventing them from receiving future payments would be eligible for more money. "A rising tide would raise all ships, " he said. "We would go back and make supplemental payments." ........ No one in the Collins family is holding his or her breath in the hopes that anyone will make them whole. They wonder if that's even possible. The $60 check Collins Oyster Co. received from Gulf Coast Claims Facility last week didn't raise anyone's spirits. "I lost three grandsons that might never come back in the business, " Wilbert Collins said, referring to Levy IV, Wilbert II and Kane Collins. "They've already found other jobs." Nick Collins joined his father at the table, having just returned from fishing oysters in Chinaman Bayou, west of Bayou Lafourche. His shirt was caked in mud and his arm stiff from a yellowjacket sting. He was reluctant to be too encouraged by the few sacks of oysters he brought back for shucking. "There are oysters out there. It's just nothing to make a living on, " he said. "Normally, with a drought like this,
file:///Users/Ann/Desktop/One%20year%20after%20Gulf%20of%20Mexico‌%20to%20hang%20onto%2090-year-old%20oyster%20business.webarchive
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One year after Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto‌ oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto 90-year-old oyster business
7/11/11 10:15 AM
there would have been oysters all over the place."
But loss of hope has not bred an aversion to working toward the future. Nick Collins is resistant to finding a job outside of oystering, a requirement if he wants to continue receiving unemployment, because he said it would keep him from the tasks necessary for eventually returning to the water full time. "I could go find a job today, " he said. "But I've got farming to do if I want to keep my business going." David Grunfeld / The Times-Picayune
In the driveway out back, Nick's brother, Levy III,
A sign in the front yard of the Collins Oyster Company in Golden Meadow.
and John Dufrene, a family friend and occasional Collins Oyster employee, were busy shucking the day's catch and depositing the meat into a large metal pot. A few days later, a busload of guests from New Orleans drove down to Grand Isle to take an early morning ride into Caminada Bay aboard the Collins' boat. The oysters harvested days earlier could be found in the pots crowding the stove. There was oyster spaghetti as well as an oyster fricassee with potatoes. Before heading back to the city, the guests -- most of them members of the local media, seafood, restaurant and tourism industries -- were treated to a lunch in the building behind Wilbert Collins' home. Before the spill, it's where Collins Oyster Co. sold its wares retail. The building fronts Highway 1. The sign outside reads, "Collins Oyster Co. Out of Business After 90 Yrs. Because of BP's Oil & Governor Jindal's fresh water." ....... Restaurant writer Brett Anderson can be reached at banderson@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3353. Comment and read more at nola.com/dining.
One year after Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto 90-year-old oyster business Published: Sunday, June 26, 2011, 1:00 AM
By
Updated: Monday, June 27, 2011, 10:15 AM
Brett Anderson, The Times-Picayune
file:///Users/Ann/Desktop/One%20year%20after%20Gulf%20of%20Mexico‌%20to%20hang%20onto%2090-year-old%20oyster%20business.webarchive
Page 6 of 12
One year after Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto‌ oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto 90-year-old oyster business
7/11/11 10:15 AM
Nick Collins pulled a dredge up alongside his oyster boat, numbly resigned to finding his worst fears realized. "I knew there were going to be dead oysters, " he said after emptying a load of shells onto a metal work table at the bow of the Broad & Tracy, the largest of his family's three-boat fleet. "It's still sad." Collins ran a dull knife through a pile large enough to fill the trunk of a fuel-efficient sedan. After several minutes of rooting around, occasionally pausing to inspect an oyster or clam shell with his gloved hand, Collins was able to unearth only two Enlarge
David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune
live oysters. That meager catch, however, was not
Dead oysters on the Collins Camanada Bay reef near Grand Isle Friday April 22, 2011.
the main cause of his disappointment.
Shell Shocked: Collins family oyster business 1 year after the oil
It had taken Collins 3 1/2 hours to arrive at Snail
spill gallery (8 photos)
Bay, which on a map sits roughly halfway between Port Sulphur, the industrial town on the west bank of the Mississippi River, and Golden Meadow, the
village on Bayou Lafourche where most of the Collins family has lived for generations and his starting point for this mid-May excursion. Of the more than 2,000 oyster bed leases owned by the Collins family, whose Collins Oyster Co. was started nearly a century ago by Levy Collins Sr., Nick's great-grandfather, the ones in Snail Bay usually are among the most fertile. That at least was until a year ago, when the Davis Pond Freshwater Diversion Structure was opened in the hopes that the rush of Mississippi River water it allowed in would push oil from the 2010 BP spill out of the area's delicate coastal wetlands. Collins knew the resulting drop in the water's salinity would spell doom for most of the oysters on his Snail Bay leases. His mission this day was to see what the future held. "I came out here today to see if I had a spat take, " Collins said as he picked his way through another dredge load of dead oysters. Spats occur when free-swimming oyster larvae attach themselves to hard surfaces, often other oyster or clam shells, to grow. "If there was a healthy spat take, " Collins explained after prying open another dead oyster, "I'd see 20, 30, 40, maybe even 50 inside there, a bunch of little red dots. Out of 100 spats, maybe three or four will make it. But if I have three or four oyster (spats) on every shell, in three or four years I'm going to have dredge loads of live
file:///Users/Ann/Desktop/One%20year%20after%20Gulf%20of%20Mexico‌%20to%20hang%20onto%2090-year-old%20oyster%20business.webarchive
Page 7 of 12
One year after Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto‌ oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto 90-year-old oyster business
7/11/11 10:15 AM
oysters. "But I don't see any spat." ........ Earl Melancon Jr., professor of biological sciences at Nicholls State University, said Snail Bay experienced "100percent mortality" of its oysters due to the infusion of fresh water following the BP oil spill. A month after Collins' trip, tests Melancon conducted in Snail Bay showed there was a spat set. "It's not a stong set, but it's a fair set, " Melancon said. He called the discovery "the very first signs of life on those reefs since the freshwater diversions over a year ago. But these oysters are so small and so vulnerable that you're looking at three years before they're harvestable." Under normal circumstances, the presence of so many dead oysters would have been reason enough for heartache. The ones of harvestable size, of which there appeared to be many, would have represented the fruits of a years-long nurturing process that began after the first successful spat take following Hurricane Katrina, whose massive tidal surge tore through oyster beds along Louisiana's eastern coastline. The
More on this story BP oil spill threatens a Lafourche oysterman's way of life BP exec says oil company has learned from failures in Gulf oil spill Shrimpers air gripes about low prices, imports in Belle Chasse New Orleans chefs forced to get creative as Gulf seafood supply dwindles in wake of oil spill
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries estimates the storm killed 70 percent of the region's oysters. For oyster fishers, hurricanes hold a cruel irony: The waves that cause so much destruction on land can leave a silver lining for the future along the floors of the violently stirred coastal waters they travel. Through a kind of natural-occurring cleansing process that wipes oyster beds clean of dead grass and mud, storms can help create, albeit after years of patience and labor, even healthier environments for oysters to grow. The oysters die, but beds wiped clean of dead grass and mud allow oysters "to come back faster and grow faster, " explained Melancon. "Something like that can be beneficial if it happens periodically."
By the time of the oil spill, Snail Bay was nearing the end stage of this natural phenomenon. Had the oysters survived the measures taken to combat the oil, they would have been harvested in September and replanted in nearby Caminada Bay. There, the oysters reach select-grade file:///Users/Ann/Desktop/One%20year%20after%20Gulf%20of%20Mexico‌%20to%20hang%20onto%2090-year-old%20oyster%20business.webarchive
Page 8 of 12
One year after Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto‌ oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto 90-year-old oyster business
7/11/11 10:15 AM
maturity in the typically higher salinity water in time to meet the increased demand of the holiday season. "You see how this big one's pretty, but these three are kind of skinny and flat?" Collins asked, holding David Grunfeld / The Times-Picayune Levy Collins unties the Capt. Wilbert oyster lugger before heading out to Snail Bay.
up a gnarled, mud-dripping cluster of oysters. "I would have broke them off and left them till next year. They'd (have) all been grade-A oysters."
Collins tossed the oysters overboard and wiped a forearm across his stubbled face. His tan appeared to have deepened in the few hours since arriving on Snail Bay. A grandfather at 39, Collins isn't shy about his burdens or his distaste for authority. Both add an edge to his boyish, frequently flashed smile, which one imagines is as useful for getting into trouble as out of it. "Whether it's the fresh water or dispersants, it's all due to the oil spill, because without the oil spill, I would have sold these puppies this year, " Collins said, standing over yet another mound of dead oysters. The Katrina losses were easier to take because, as he put it, "Mother Nature always gives you it back. What BP can't do is give me anything back." ........ The 2010 oyster season was supposed to bring the Collins Oyster Co.'s lean post-Katrina years to an end, thanks in large part to the restored health of the beds in Snail Bay. The fishing closures triggered by the oil spill dashed those hopes, and the 2011 season is proving to be even more grim. Oyster production in Louisiana was down more than 55 percent in 2010 compared to 2009, according to Wildlife and Fisheries, putting Louisiana No. 2, behind Washington state, as the country's top domestic oyster producer. The same period shows a nearly 50-percent dip in dockside value as well. The oyster catch the first five months of 2011 was 18 percent of 2010's total and just below 9 percent of 2009's, according to Wildlife and Fisheries.
Industry observers believe the influx of fresh water from the Bonne Carre and Morganza
Oyster harvester video profile: How the Gulf oil spill has affected me
spillways, which were opened this spring to
Times-Picayune video profiles Nick Collins, a fourth-generation oysterman
relieve pressure on levees as the Mississippi River reached historically high levels, will cause even greater damage to this year's Louisiana oyster crop.
file:///Users/Ann/Desktop/One%20year%20after%20Gulf%20of%20Mexico‌%20to%20hang%20onto%2090-year-old%20oyster%20business.webarchive
Page 9 of 12
One year after Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto‌ oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto 90-year-old oyster business
7/11/11 10:15 AM
The Collins family, however, does not expect to be greatly affected by the spillway openings. While they've been able to fish market-size oysters in some areas west of Bayou Lafourche, the kill-offs elsewhere have ground their business to a virtual halt. Collins' stepmother, Beatriz "Betty" Collins, and accountant Melissa Kiffe are the only employees still drawing salaries. In mid-May, Collins said he was on his sixth week of living off of $250-a-week unemployment checks. "We (had) about a $300,000 to $500,000 (per year) business, " said Wilbert Collins Sr., Nick's 73-year-old father and patriarch of the family business. "They broke the company." ........ Wilbert Collins was sitting at the dining-room table in his Golden Meadow home a week after the trip to Snail Bay. He has a fondness for Guyabera-style shirts and Marlboro Golds, and is something of an elder statesmen among Louisiana oyster fishers. This is particularly true around Bayou Lafourche. As every Collins family member is quick to point out, the area was once a bustling capital of the oyster industry. For reasons having to do with coastal erosion and the lure of betterpaying jobs in the oil and gas industries that have helped hasten it, the number of oyster fishers around Golden Meadow has shrunk to the point where, as Wilbert Collins said, "We're pretty much all that's left." Since the Collins Oyster Co. ceased its regular operations in May 2010, the family has pursued monetary compensation through both the Gulf Coast Claims Facility and the courts. Both Wilbert and Nick Collins said they've received individual payments for income lost as employees of the family business, Nick's totaling just under $15,000 and Wilbert's just under $10,000. Neither amount comes close to equaling what they would have made had the oil spill not thrown the Louisiana seafood industry into disarray, they said.
The Collins Oyster Co. has also received payments totaling about $48,000 in separate checks from BP and the Gulf Coast Claims Facility , Wilbert Collins said. He cites numerous reasons he considers the amount "a pittance, " including the loss of future income, loss of food caught for subsistence and damage caused to oyster beds as well as the reputations of Louisiana seafood and the Collins Oyster brand. "I could have used maybe $150,000 for every six months, " Wilbert Collins said. "I could have kept file:///Users/Ann/Desktop/One%20year%20after%20Gulf%20of%20Mexic‌%20to%20hang%20onto%2090-year-old%20oyster%20business.webarchive
Page 10 of 12
One year after Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto‌ oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto 90-year-old oyster business
7/11/11 10:15 AM
the (eight- to 10-member) crew going. I could David Grunfeld / The Times-Picayune Wilbert Collins of Golden Meadow laments over his family's 90 year oyster business.
have paid my expenses, just like as if I had been oystering. It wouldn't have been a dead stop." According to Gulf Coast Claims Facility
administrator Kenneth Feinberg, the formula used to calculate payments to oyster fishers offers four times the amount of proven losses suffered in 2010. Feinberg said the claims facility is working to create "a more generous methodology" to calculate oyster fishers' losses, one that would "reflect the fact that the future of oysters in the Gulf as we speak is still, over a year later, very uncertain." Feinberg's office said this week that the new methodology should be put into place by mid-summer. He added that even claimants who signed releases preventing them from receiving future payments would be eligible for more money. "A rising tide would raise all ships, " he said. "We would go back and make supplemental payments." ........ No one in the Collins family is holding his or her breath in the hopes that anyone will make them whole. They wonder if that's even possible. The $60 check Collins Oyster Co. received from Gulf Coast Claims Facility last week didn't raise anyone's spirits. "I lost three grandsons that might never come back in the business, " Wilbert Collins said, referring to Levy IV, Wilbert II and Kane Collins. "They've already found other jobs." Nick Collins joined his father at the table, having just returned from fishing oysters in Chinaman Bayou, west of Bayou Lafourche. His shirt was caked in mud and his arm stiff from a yellowjacket sting. He was reluctant to be too encouraged by the few sacks of oysters he brought back for shucking. "There are oysters out there. It's just nothing to make a living on, " he said. "Normally, with a drought like this, there would have been oysters all over the place."
But loss of hope has not bred an aversion to working toward the future. Nick Collins is resistant to finding a job outside of oystering, a requirement if he wants to continue receiving unemployment, because he said it would keep him from the tasks necessary for eventually returning to the water full time.
file:///Users/Ann/Desktop/One%20year%20after%20Gulf%20of%20Mexic‌%20to%20hang%20onto%2090-year-old%20oyster%20business.webarchive
Page 11 of 12
One year after Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto… oil spill, Collins family tries to hang onto 90-year-old oyster business
7/11/11 10:15 AM
"I could go find a job today, " he said. "But I've got farming to do if I want to keep my business going." David Grunfeld / The Times-Picayune
In the driveway out back, Nick's brother, Levy III,
A sign in the front yard of the Collins Oyster Company in Golden Meadow.
and John Dufrene, a family friend and occasional Collins Oyster employee, were busy shucking the day's catch and depositing the meat into a large metal pot. A few days later, a busload of guests from New Orleans drove down to Grand Isle to take an early morning ride into Caminada Bay aboard the Collins' boat. The oysters harvested days earlier could be found in the pots crowding the stove. There was oyster spaghetti as well as an oyster fricassee with potatoes. Before heading back to the city, the guests -- most of them members of the local media, seafood, restaurant and tourism industries -- were treated to a lunch in the building behind Wilbert Collins' home. Before the spill, it's where Collins Oyster Co. sold its wares retail. The building fronts Highway 1. The sign outside reads, "Collins Oyster Co. Out of Business After 90 Yrs. Because of BP's Oil & Governor Jindal's fresh water." ....... Restaurant writer Brett Anderson can be reached at banderson@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3353. Comment and read more at nola.com/dining. © 2011 NOLA.com. All rights reserved.
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