(MOBILE, Ala.) - There was a time right after the Deepwater Horizon disaster that fishing in Bayou La Batre would have come with a disclaimer: "At your own risk."
Now, Nancy Lundy says she's feeling a little better about the Bayou.
"The fish, I've eaten it," she says, laughing, "and I don't see any effects from it. And it hasn't killed me yet!"
Monday, BP's point man in the Gulf cleanup took news cameras above the Bayou and the entire Alabama Coast to demonstrate their message that things are better two years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
At least it certainly looks that way from up above.
"Actually," says BP's Mike Utsler, "we are still patrolling and monitoring our beaches by actively walking and looking for residual tar balls."
Even as BP was flying over the Gulf Coast, down along the waters of Bayou La Batre, shrimpers were saying there's a lot of convincing that has to be done with the consumer.
At Graham Seafood, the catch looks clean and fresh and locals are feeling better about it, but there's still a problem.
Ernie Anderson, of the Organized Seafood Association of Alabama, says it took nearly a decade to fight off cheap foreign imports, but they did it, just in time to watch the spill send wholesalers and other major customers back to their competition again.
"You know, it took us 8 years, 8 years we worked to get back those markets," says Anderson. "And we're just now two years into this and we really haven't gotten our feet wet yet in the marketing."
Anderson says they are starting to see some nibbles again with big clients like Sams and Wal-Mart, but they're still courting those important wholesalers they had just got on board before the spill.
