"Oil Spill: Gulf Oysters Vanish After 2010 Spill"

"Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may be contributing to a dramatic dive in the region's oyster harvest. Prices are up and the harvest is down, ever since the 2010 BP oil spill, but the exact cause remains unclear."

"Fisherman Randy Slavich drags a clunky metal net through an underwater oyster bed in Lake Machias, a brackish body opening into the Gulf of Mexico. For generations, this has been a bountiful lake for harvesting oysters, long before millions of gallons of oil spilled off Louisiana's coast in the 2010 BP oil spill.

On this day, Slavich's cage-like net pulls up dozens of empty, lifeless oyster shells.

'It's not good,' he said, shaking his head as he pushed the shells back into the water. 'We've never seen it like this, not out here.'"
    
Stacey Plaisance reports for the Associated Press August 12, 2014.