Last week, BP announced an overhaul of its Gulf oil spill claims process. More businesses would be eligible. More checks would be cut, and theyâd be sent out faster. Claimants facing âurgent capital needsâ could call a dedicated hotline.
But many businesses in Florida continue to face delays, and their owners are still finding their pleas for cash met with requests for documentation.
After a summer of cutting expenses, taking out loans, and fretting over truck payments, some business owners in the fishing towns along Apalachicola Bay â where the oil never came ashore â worry that BP doesnât understand their industry, and wonder whether Kenneth Feinberg is prepared to make them whole when he takes over the process later this month.
Jason Thomas of My-Way Seafood in Panacea says that business is down by thousands of dollars a week from last year, but no amount of documentation from his accountant seems to satisfy BP. On Friday, his colleague Debbie Logan returned from another fruitless three-hour trip to the claims office in nearby Crawfordville, frustrated by the lack of answers.
My-Wayâs income varies from day to day, depending on the size of the catch (which can change as often as the weather), the number of tourists driving by, the fluctuating demand of cost-conscious restaurants, and assorted other factors.
âThey canât understand how we do business like that,â Thomas says, but thatâs the way itâs always been.
Finding a way to fairly compensate My-Way for its losses, a process already fraught with uncertainty is further complicated by the fact that oil never made it this far east.
For perhaps a month after the spill, businesses like My-Way saw a spike in demand, as customers stocked up on monthsâ worth of seafood, fearing that Gulf of Mexico fisheries could be lost forever.
âAfter that, it just died, like somebody turned a faucet off,â Thomas says.
For a while, though, the fish were still biting. Fishermen could catch plenty of fish, but they couldnât sell them. As seafood from other parts of the gulf became unavailable, the price of shrimp and oysters spiked, and seafood distributors like Lynneâs Quality Oysters in Eastpoint were squeezed. Individual fishermen lined up for $5,000 claims, but that was little help for larger businesses.
âFive thousand dollars wonât even pay my utility bills,â says Lynne Martina, the owner. She says sheâs taken out a loan from the Small Business Administration to stay afloat. Business is recovering, slowly, but thereâs no telling when it will return to normal.
Calculating the spillâs tangential effects on seafood markets is difficult. In Florida, the industry has been hurting for years, due to strict catch limits and competition from cheap flash-frozen imports. For every seafood distributor still operating along U.S. 98, thereâs another one boarded up.
Still, Thomas says, heâs been able to make a decent living off the family business. Now he says he worries about losing everything.
During a recent visit to Florida, incoming claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg told a group of fishing industry representatives to share their expertise to help him craft a fair method for figuring out how to compensate them.
âItâs pretty clear youâre eligible,â he told the group. The hard part would be figuring out how much each commercial fishing operation or charter boat operator is entitled to.
So are some more eligible than others? And which losses will be covered?
Last week, BP said it would be focusing on claims filed by businesses âin close proximityâ to the spill, and deferring the rest to Feinberg, who will begin making payments later this month. It remains unclear what âclose proximityâ means â though it does not seem to include fishing operations along the Florida peninsula.
Feinberg will return to Florida Tuesday, to meet with representatives of affected industries and work toward answers to those questions.
Representatives for Feinberg did not respond to requests for comment, and BPâs press office said it couldnât answer questions about specific cases.
