Snapper season 2011, one year after BP oil spill: 'Bigger, badder and better'

MOBILE, Alabama -- Snapper season began at midnight, promising to be much longer than the 2010 season, which both opened and closed a year ago today.
Fishermen returning to the dock then were greeted with the news that federal officials had closed most of the Gulf to fishing while they were at sea. In local waters off Alabama and Mississippi, that day also marked the arrival of large amounts of oil. And for a year, people in the fishing industry wondered if they would lose everything from boats, gear and their livelihood, to the wildly productive Gulf ecosystem itself.
Count Skipper Thierry among those who were afraid.
Thierry started going on trips on his father’s charter boat as a 4-year-old, before he could even see over the gunwales. His teen years were spent at sea as a deckhand, unhooking snapper and baiting hooks for paying customers. After a brief flirtation with higher education, Thierry knew what he wanted to do with his life.
He came home and bought the Escape, his charter boat.
Fishing is all he’s ever known.
"Nobody can say, ‘Oh yeah, I thought the oil spill was going to be great,’" Thierry said last week, guiding his boat through the narrow channel leading to the Dauphin Island Marina. "I’m definitely surprised that, a year later, it looks this good."
Trading fishing for scientific outreach
Thierry worked in BP’s Vessels of Opportunity program during the spill, spotting oil off the coast.
"Man, it was depressing. Oil coming in; I just knew it was going to be everywhere," Thierry said, describing the sinking feeling that consumed him and others on the coast last summer.
Thierry spent the fall, winter and spring taking teams of scientists out to study the Gulf, particularly the red snapper population. Instead of dropping squid-baited hooks overboard, he’s been watching the researchers deploy complicated equipment that analyzes everything from salinity and oxygen levels, to the kinds of plankton in the water.
They also dropped an underwater video camera.
"I was dreading seeing them put that camera down there. I just knew we were going to see oil everywhere on the bottom. I was worried to death, like everyone else," Thierry said. "But everywhere we went, everything looked perfect."
Thierry said that about 10,000 pounds of fish have come aboard his boat since fall, some caught by charter customers, some by scientists, and some by crews he’s taken on commercial trips to make up for a lack of charter bookings.
'Everything out there, is bigger, badder, and better'
Now, with opening day upon him, he said, "I’m just ready to go do my thing. I’m ready to go fishing. I’m ready to be done with the oil spill, and the oil industry. I think we’re getting there."
He continued, "I think the fish are fine. I think the fishing’s fine. We still have a little bit of a perception problem — or maybe a lot of a perception problem — with the public. Nothing is going to heal that but time."
As for a prediction about this year’s snapper season, Thierry said it’s going to be outstanding.
"We left a lot of fish out there last year, and the spill didn’t kill them. That moves right on up the food chain. The fish are everywhere," Thierry said.
"I’ll say this: The Gulf, the red snapper, everything out there, is bigger, badder, and better than it’s ever been. And it really is. Nobody can deny that."