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The British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is now flowing at five times the previous estimate with a rate of at least 25,000 barrels per day. The environmental catastrophe is currently on pace to eclipse the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in just a few weeks. Residents of Gulf coastal communities are already reporting a “petroleum stench” in the air even before the oil hits their coastal wetlands. As the oil reaches the powerful loop current, Floridians are bracing for the impact on the coral reefs, fisheries, and ecosystem of the Keys. BP’s latest effort to contain the rupture on the sea floor is the construction of a so-called inverted “funnel”. BP hopes that the giant steel box weighing over 80 tons will carry about 85% of the oil up to a ship waiting to collect it. The funnel, however, will take several weeks to even be put in place. With fisheries closed, BP had offered to hire out-of-work fishermen if they signed an agreement absolving the company of liability if they are hurt during clean-up operations but the agreements are now under review. Meanwhile, the U.S. Gulf coast is a rich breeding ground for fish, crabs, oyster, and shrimp and accounts for about 20 percent of the nation’s total seafood harvest. Louisiana shrimpers filed suit last week against BP for endangering their livelihood.

GUEST: Kevin Davis, President of the St. Tammany Parrish Government, Robert Zullo, City Editor of the Daily Courier and Daily Comet Newspapers which cover the Terrabonne and La Fourche Parrishes