Gulf Disaster Spills Into Smithtown Seafood Shops

The Gulf of Mexico is 1,500 miles away from Smithtown, but the town is still paying a price for the April BP oil leak.

At Uncle Guiseppes, fish department manager John Ronick has noticed an increase in prices this summer. 

"I am getting my shrimp from Mexico and it went up about 25 cents a pound," Ronick said as he peeled one of these expensive $11.95/lb. shrimp."I like the Mexican shrimp because they are white, they taste better than brown shrimp or farm raised shrimp."

Ronick thinks that prices are up not because supply is down, since the fish knew to move away from the oil, but because it is more difficult to reach the seafood.  "The boats have to use more oil to go further [from the leak area] to find the shrimp," he explained.

Gail and Mark Nelson have owned Ocean's Bounty Seafood in Smithtown since 2000. They began as a wholesale outlet providing fresh seafood to many local restaurants but now they serve local St. James residents as well. They have also seen the effects of the gulf spill.

"The price of shrimp went up about $2 per pound," said Gail.  They are presently selling cleaned extra-large shrimp at $11.95/lb. "It's supply and demand, people still want the product," she said, adding that prices are up for all types of fish.  However, she said the market does get very little stuff from the Gulf.

Back in April a British Petroleum (BP) oil rig exploded 5,000 feet below the ocean in the Gulf of Mexico and some reports suggested the rig was hemorrhaging over one million gallons of oil each day until it was successfully capped in mid-July.

According to Greenpeace, a non-profit created almost 40 years ago to raise public awareness about environmental issues, the spill was more than 130 miles long and 70 miles wide, a leak so big that it would have covered all of Long Island – from Manhattan to Montauk.  

Reports issued this week from BP and from Washington say that 75 percent of the spill has been clean up or dispersed naturally or chemically. The FDA says that crude oil has the potential to taint seafood with flavors and odors but that the public should not be concerned about the safety of seafood in stores at this time.

The FDA has begun to reopen commercial fishing areas in Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi and with the supply increasing, fish mongers anticipate the prices will eventually go down to pre-oil spill numbers.

In Smithtown, market owners like the Nelson's suspect that some price gouging is happening but see that residents are still having a seafood-filled summer, eating shrimp parmesan heroes, grilling shrimp at backyard barbeques and purchasing raw shrimp from fish mongers and supermarkets.

"The people will always buy shrimp," Nelson said.  "The prices are just very high this year."

To track the latest observations, tar balls, oil slicks and fishing closures, visit www.geoplatform.gov, which provides a map of the affected areas. To volunteer with the cleanup, visit http://www.tonic.com/article/how-you-can-volunteer-to-clean-up-the-gulf-coast-oil-spill/.