"From an Oyster in the Gulf, a Domino Effect"

"BAYOU GRAND CAILLOU, La. -- In Gulf of Mexico waters deemed safe, at least for now, the two metal claws of a weather-beaten flatboat rake the muck below for those prehistoric chunks of desire, oysters. Then the captain and his two deckhands, their shirts flecked with the pewter mud of the sea, dump the dripping haul onto metal tables and begin the culling. ...

The rocklike oyster and the burlap sack. As basic as it gets in the gulf, yet both are integral to a complex system of recycling and ingenuity, a system now threatened, along with most everything else, by the continuing oil-spill catastrophe in the gulf.

The disaster’s economic fallout has had a sneaky domino effect, touching the lives of everyone from the French Quarter shuckers who turn oyster-opening into theater to the Minnesota businessman who grinds the shells for chicken-feed supplement. Some victims were unaware that they were even tiles in the game, so removed were they from the damaged waters."

Dan Barry reports for the New York Times July 13, 2010.

SEE ALSO:

Slideshow: "Oysters Touch Many From Gulf to Table"

"Apalachicola Bay Oystermen Fight for Livelihood -- and Identity" (Miami Herald)

"Florida Oysters Face an 'Armageddon' From Oil Spill" (Florida Today)

"Gulf Oil Spill Puts Oyster Shuckers, Traditions on Ice" (New Orleans Times-Picayune)

"How Some Dallas Seafood Restaurants are Coping With The Gulf Oil Spill" (D Magazine)

"In Louisiana, Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Stymies Oyster Harvest" (Voice of America)

"Gulf Seafood Must Pass the Smell Test" (Washington Post)

"Gulf Oil Spill Has Oyster Lovers Shelling Out More" (WNYC)