BARATARIA, La. — The inlets that envelop this bayou community extend like fingers on a hand, reaching into the backyards of lifelong fishermen. But the boat behind one fishing family's house sits idle for now, as Tracy Kuhns turns from living off the water to worrying about it.
"The elected officials and the petrochemical companies think the fishermen are just going to let this go away," Kuhns said this week during an interview at her office. "They're used to fishermen allowing them to do this to fishing grounds."
For Kuhns, this time is different. The multicolored pins on her wall tell the story, each inserted into a map of the coast to detail outreach she has made to other towns since the Macondo oil field first began spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico. This time is different, she believes, because some fishermen are not willing to stay quiet and keep hauling up catch they do not trust.
"This stuff is in my canal, behind my home, where my grandchildren swim all summer long," Kuhns said. She voted for President Obama in 2008, but now she watches in disbelief as his White House serves Gulf seafood to assure the public of its safety. "Come to my house," Kuhns advised Obama, "and I won't pretty it up before you show up. I won't tell you, the seafood I pull out of [the water], that I feel comfortable feeding it to my grandbabies."
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