A company from Texas that sells seafood in Iowa every summer is back again this year despite all the troubles caused in the Gulf by the oil spill. Justin Gian is a third generation seafood seller from Galveston, Texas, who says despite what some people may think, the entire Gulf has not shut down due to the spill.
Eastern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and western Florida are all closed for fishing, but western Louisiana and Texas are safe for fishing as oil hasn’t reached them yet.
Speaking from the same corner near downtown Des Moines where his family’s truck has stopped for 20 some years, Gian says it’s believed the oil would only get to Galveston if a hurricane came through. He says the spill though has impacted them, as they off work at the end of May when the Texas season closed and it was too hard to get seafood from western Louisiana.
Shrimp sold by Fabian Seafood.
Gian says businesses in Texas have been able to weather the problems caused by the spill. He says there are not many places in Texas that have been shut down completely, as most places stocked up on seafood before the prices went up. Gian says though, that stockpile only lasts for a time and then they have to buy more. The oil spill is the big topic of conversation when customers stop to make a purchase at his Fabian Seafood Company truck.
Gian’s says almost every customer ask him about the spill and if it has affected them and he says it did hurt them with the shut down in June — normally their busiest time of year It’s not just the seafood businesses that have been hit, Gian says friends of his in the tourism industry in Galveston also have suffered.
Gian says a story came out a few weeks that tar balls had hit Galveston Island, but it was later determined they weren’t tar balls from the Deep Water Horizon oil rig. But he says the story spurred a bunch of cancellations and it has really hit the tourism industry. Gian says the capping of the gushing oil well is welcome news to everyone across the Gulf. He says he got goose bumps when he heard about it as it’s a signal that “the end is in sight now.” Gian’s three week schedule also includes Wisconsin and Illinois.
Listen to Dar Danielson’s report on Fabian Seafood: Danielson report 1:20 MP3