May 22, 2014 — Florida’s U.S. senators sent a letter this week to Penny Pritzker, secretary of the Department of Commerce, urging that the government gather more data before clamping down on the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishing season. This makes sense. The fishing season in federal waters shouldn’t be so severely shortened — to nine days, by the latest decree — without good reason.
But the senators’ letter also contains an argument that carries environmental and political ramifications. Fishermen shouldn’t be blamed, they say, for damage that BP may well have caused.
“Four years ago,” the letter says, “crude oil fouled the very waters where these fish spawn in the Gulf of Mexico. BP should account for the mess it caused — not Gulf fishermen. Scientists tell us that 2010 and 2011 were some of the weakest spawning years in history. And there is an unusual gap in younger populations since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.”
With their letter, Sens. Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio raise the possibility that the red snapper fishery is in poor shape not because of overfishing but because of pollution.
For Sen. Nelson, this isn’t much of a stretch. The Democrat was harshly critical of BP during and after the spill.
For Sen. Rubio, though, this is fresh territory. The Republican is a “Drill, baby, drill!” kind of guy. During an October 2009 visit with the Daily News’ editorial board, he said new technology meant no more oil spills. (The Deepwater Horizon rig went up in flames six months later.)
Read the full opinion piece at the Northwest Florida Daily News