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GLORIA PENNER (Host): The oil spill in the Gulf
of Mexico has left many fisherman
in that region sidelined.
KPBS reporter Katie Orr wanted to find
out if the local fishing industry was benefiting
from the gulf's environmental disaster.
She brings us this report.
KATIE ORR (KPBS Reporter):
San Diego's Chesapeake Fish Co. handles about 11 million pounds
of fresh and frozen seafood every year.
STEVE FOLTZ (Chesapeake Fish Co.): We have the yellow tail,
California halibut, the swordfish when it's in season.
June 16 is the white sea bass opener
up in Santa Barbara in the Ventura area.
That'll go for about two months and then kind of go away.
We have spiny lobster fishermen here during the winter months,
October through March.
And then, also, the sea urchin divers
who are pretty much all year round.
ORR: But so far the company hasn't seen a boost in business
because of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Chesapeake's Steve Foltz says that's because the types
of seafood available there are different from the fish here.
FOLTZ: What the folks in the Midwest that are used to buying
that fish, and even the locals down there,
the local distribution processors and wholesalers.
They're saying, hey, I'm going to call Texas.
I'm going to call Florida.
Other ports out of the Gulf of Mexico to try
to find those species.
If they can't, then they'll probably call us and call up
and down the West Coast, East Coast, and other parts
of the world and substitute those species
with other species.
ORR: Foltz says Chesapeake does buy seafood
from other parts of the country.
But he says one of their primary goals is
to get locally caught fish into the market.
He says an oil spill here would be just as devastating
as the spill in the Gulf.
FOLTZ: You wouldn't be able to go to those fishing grounds
where you normally would be fishing
to find whatever white sea bass or halibut
or whatever fish they were capturing there.
So they'd either need to go up north,
maybe to Central California or Northern California.
ORR: Foltz says San Diego's fishing industry has declined
over the years.
But he says it's still a sleeping giant
with an economic ripple effect that spreads across the country.