BON SECOUR, Alabama – A deck full of royal red shrimp and oil is the last thing anyone wanted to see docked in Bon Secour.
"My first reaction was its going to kill the sell of seafood because all people hear is shrimp boat out of Bon Secour caught some shrimp with oil on em." Billy Parks owns Billy's Seafood in Bon Secour. He says there is a part of the story no one knows.
"The boat did catch shrimp with oil on 'em but before that he caught a lot of shrimp, him and about 150 other boats, inshore and they was all clean."
The royal reds were caught in 1300 feet of water about 40 miles north of the Deepwater Horizon site in waters reopened last week by NOAA.
NOAA officials and scientist are taking this catch very seriously. They are doing several things right now. They are testing the oil to see if it indeed came from the Deepwater Horizon. They are testing the shrimp to see if and how they were affected by the oil and they've sent a vessel back out to the site to see if they can see any oil on the surface and they are not ruling out shutting down those waters again.
"Everybody knows including our state and federal agencies that the oil is not gone." Casi Callaway with Mobile Baykeeper was not surprised to hear about the oily shrimp.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: WKRG-TV (Mobile, AL).