Oil spill effects hitting South Texas

PORT ISABEL — Although the Gulf oil spill has not spread to the South Texas coast, its effects are already being felt, many in the maritime industry say.

Seafood wholesalers, charter boat owners, tow and other service boat operators, as well as fuel and ice suppliers have all been affected, they said at a meeting here this past week.

About 70 people, nearly all of them shrimpers, met at the Port Isabel Community Center Tuesday evening to discuss the effects of the ongoing oil spill off the coast of Louisiana. Many talked about their fears that the spill could harm their livelihoods.

Normal fishing and shrimping for Port Isabel maritime industries have been prohibited east of longitude 91 degrees in the oil spill area, they said. This has closed a large area of fishing grounds traditionally worked by South Texas boats.

Gary Clark, executive officer of U.S. Coast Guard Station South Padre Island, told the group that so far damage to the Texas fishing industry has been minimal, and no oil from the spill has drifted anywhere near Texas state waters.

But that could change, Clark said.

"Nobody can predict the ultimate results of this spill," he said. "At this point there is simply not enough data available."

Joseph Hilliard, representing the Brownsville office of the Texas General Land Office Oil Spill Program, said tar balls that washed ashore on South Padre Island beaches last week have been analyzed and shown that they were not from the Louisiana accident.

Hilliard added that the GLO is monitoring the situation, and will intervene if necessary.

A handout from Texas Sea Grant advised caution when making decisions about claims for compensation for damages caused by the oil spill.

The handout says:

-- No lawyer or his or her representative is allowed to solicit employment in person unless previously contacted by the aggrieved party.

-- Anyone who seeks compensation from a company, and the company fails to satisfy the claim, may then seek payment from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, created by Congress after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaskan waters in 1989.

-- People who say they were injured may file claims up to two years from now. However, it is not necessary to retain an attorney in order to file a claim immediately.

-- Anyone who accepts compensation from a company before the full extent of damages is known may not be able to seek further compensation in the future.

Attorney Dana Kirk, of the Houston law firm of Kirk-Watson, said he agreed with parts of this handout and disagreed with others. He said that anyone who can prove he or she has suffered economic loss from this spill can file suit immediately in a Texas district court with projected future losses to be included as soon as data is available to compute how great that future loss might be.

He said that three of four parties that may end up sharing responsibility for the spill are based in Texas, and that when a Texas resident sues a Texas entity the federal government has no jurisdiction. "Your case will be decided in Texas courts, based on Texas law," he said.

He said he believes each case should be decided individually, based on its own merits.

"At first I thought class action was the way to go," he said. "But then I realized that the shrimp boat owner’s loss is different from that of the wholesaler, and the wholesaler’s is different from that of the deck hand, and so on."

Kirk, invited to the meeting by the meeting organizers, emphasized that he was not soliciting business.

A commercial charter fishing boat captain said that almost all his usual fishing grounds were now off limits and wanted to know if that constituted economic damage.

"Absolutely," Kirk said and suggested that this year’s income be compared to last year’s to determine how much loss had occurred.

"Amounts of future losses can be calculated after more data is available," he said.

Also present were Port Isabel Mayor Joe Vega, Don Hockaday of the Pan American Coastal Studies Lab on South Padre Island and representatives from U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz’s office and another from state Sen. Eddie Lucio’s office.