and oystermen and it is interesting to hear what they say. i want you to check out this clip. reporter: so this doesn t seem like a lot of baby oysters though. there are no baby oysters, and that is what is scary. this should be full, full, full of oysters the size of your fingernail should be blistered all over this thing at this time right now. the impact was the income. we lost our season. we didn t have the money. it is you see, fishing is not a get-rich business, but if you do it right, you will live comfortably. i think that there is a little bit of shrimp out there, but the problem is that the market, consumers that is what i worry about. reporter: yeah. as far as how to persuading them to eat especially the seafood lover. that is all i m worried about in this business. so there is a lot of concern as you can see from what is happening right now in the fishing industry and what is going to come in the few chushgs
communities along the coast to louisiana. fishermen, individuals involved in the tourist industry. they are still very worried some of the oystermen we were out with are concerned because they are not seeing the small little fingernail sized larvae that should be growing on adult oyster shells. they are not. they are not seeing a recruitment of the next generation and they are very, very concerned about that. that s very plim mary and anecdotal at this point. but it lines up with when we know from for example exxon valdez oil spill in alaska in 1989. it took lee years for the herring fish through there to collapse. when you are talking to folks in these communities what s been the biggest life change for them in this past year? a lot of the individuals in these communities still haven t been made whole after this disaster. lot of people are still struggling to pay their bills. they are still watching the potential and on the edge of the businesses falling apart. a lot rests on
oystering again in february for the first time after the oil pill. he says this year, the oyster beds are behaving differently. doesn t seem like a lot of baby oysters? no, there s no baby oysters. that s what s scary. this should be full, full, full, full of oysters the size of your fingernail. should be blistered all over this thing. reporter: oyster larvae normally grow on the shells of mature oysters but they re not growing on the oysters in this area. if you don t have tomorrow s oysters you ll go out of business. for life-long oystermen like henry, their livelihood depends on this ecosystem recovering. not only has there been an impact on the fishery but the oil spill happened at the beginning of the shrimping season last year, closing all waters to any fisheries. it year at the beginning of the next season, there s a lot of uncertainty of what the future will hold.
million left and they gave me a million. reporter: sources familiar with the compensation fund say blanchard was given a million dollars for lost profits on $7 million in lost sales. but fund administrator, ken feinberg, he is willing to listen. if we made a mistake, and he should receive not one million dollars but $2 million or $3 million, for his documented damage, we will pay it. reporter: at least there are shrimp to catch this year. not so with the oyster industry. freshwater diverted from the mississippi to keep oil out the marsh killed much of the stock and took with it family operations that had been in business 90 years. it has been our life. it is hard to just lose it. we never, i never experienced losing my livelihood before, you know? reporter: optimistic assessments it will take three years for the oyster industry to come back. a lot of oystermen say maybe like five or 10 years. the state is becoming more frustrated with bp putting
this as a miraculous recovery. mr. pettitte, good to have you with us tonight. thank you. thank you. here s another bony got to pick with the white house over the spill. at yesterday s meeting i asked them, give me a dated. you know, for the people down in the gulf who are going to be getting their checks. they didn t have an answer. when the rig blew up, the president promised everyone they d make everybody whole. bp promised they re going to make everybody whole. yet, i just can t get a straight answer. now, carol browner said she would get back to me with that date and said they are working on it. jeffrey breit is a lawyer representing more than 600 shrimpers, oystermen and crabbers. good to have you with us tonight. i want you to know as soon as carol browner calls me, i m going to call you because you re representing so many people. it is amazing. you told our people today that they have changed the rules five times. is that right? i was on the show last week, ed, and since