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Nathan Jurisich pilots his oyster boat out into Barataria Bay, La. in the early morning. The sun rises early in the morning in Barataria Bay, La. The sticks in the water designate parcels of land that are leased from the state by oystermen. These leases are hard to come by and are highly coveted. Most oystermen are simply hired to work on someone else's lease which drastically cuts back on the profits one can make each day. Nathan Jurisich, is a fourth generation oysterman catching oysters for his father's seafood company. His dad and uncle lease 15,000 acres of land that they fish from which is a big number compared to most oystermen. He says, for his dad's company, things have been relatively ok since the oil spill because they have so much land to catch oysters from. For those that have small leases the struggle is much worse and the impact of the oil spill felt more prominently. Two crew members on Nathan Jurisich's boat unload the basket that dredges up the oysters from the floor of Barataria Bay off the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. Two crew members on Nathan Jurisich's boat clean up the fresh oysters just pulled in and throw them into the large metal baskets in Barataria Bay off the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. Three oystermen from Alabama work on a lease that Mitch and Frank Jurisich have in Barataria Bay, La. These oystermen come to Louisiana to work because the conditions in Alabama appear to be much worse than in Barataria Bay. The crew on these smaller boats catch the oysters manually as opposed to the large boats that drag baskets with mechanical pulleys. For oystermen working like this, making a living is tough a large cut of money goes to the owner of the leased land. An oysterman cleans off debris and barnacles on an oyster before putting them into sacks to sell to market in Barataria Bay, La. Fresh oysters directly out of the water in Barataria Bay, La. When this metal basket gets filled, the oysters are put into a sack and then sold to market. Nathan Jurisich ties off the sacks of oysters after his crew fills them up in Barataria Bay off the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. Terry Alexis has worked at Eddie's Quality Oysters since he was 17 years old. He buys the oysters from the oystermen directly off their boat when they come into Empire Marina at the end of the day in Empire, La. He says, overall, he saw about a 30% drop in the numbers of oysters coming into the marina since the BP oil spill. So far this season, he says, the numbers are looking good and getting closer to what he considers normal. Frank Jurisich, unloads and tags the sacks of oysters he and his crew caught that day at Empire Marina in Empire, La. His family oyster business has been having a pretty good catch this oyster season so far according to his cousin Nathan Jurisich. Salvador Cepriano II, loads sacks of oysters off of Nathan Jurisich's fishing boat. He works for Eddie's Quality Oysters, a broker that buys oysters from oystermen at the Empire Marina in Empire, La. The presence of oil companies in Plaquemines Parish, La is ubiquitous. Many people in southern Louisiana make their living working for big oil companies. People like Kindra Arnesen have been chastised by much of her community for speaking out so strongly against BP because for most living in this part of the country are either a fisherman or working in the oil industry which has caused a rift between the two groups. Kindra Arnesen, who's husband is a fisherman, has been very outspoken against BP and the affects the oil spill has had in Plaquemines Parish, La. She is especially distraught about the affects the spill has had on the health of the people that live and work everyday in the areas affected by the spill. David Arnesen is a commercial fishermen in Buras, La. His lively hood as a fisherman has been greatly impacted by the spill. Contrary to what most oystermen are saying, the amount of fish he is catching each year since the oil spill is getting lower and lower. The large finned fish that he catches are no longer in the waters he's fished for 20 years because, he says, the smaller fish that the bigger ones feed on have died off after the spill. Three boats sit stagnant in the marina in Pointe a la Hache, La. This marina used to be one of the busiest in Lousiana, and now it is mostly empty. The few boats left in the marina seemed to have been left to rot. Pablo Cervantes inside his boat at the marina in Pointe a la Hache, La. This boat, he says, hasn't been used in over 3 years and is slowly falling apart. He moved from Mexico to Houma, La in 1992. He began working as an oysterman and fisherman and had four boats he worked from at several different marinas, at one time making $500,000 a year. He says the fishing on the east side of the Mississippi River where Pointe a la Hache is located is non-existent and that he now can only make a meager living fishing on the the west side in Barataria Bay working on other people's leased land. Pablo Cervantes' boat sits by itself in a corner of the marina in Pointe a la Hache, La.
A look at how the BP oil spill has continued to make an impact on the communities in the Gulf Coast 5 years after the largest spill ever recorded.
BP Oil Spill: Five Years Later for The Guardian

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