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ByStaceyPlaisance AssociatedPress HOPEDALE, LA. Fisher- man Randy Slavich drags a clunky metal net through an underwater oyster bed in Lake Machias, a brack- ish body opening into the Gulf of Mexico. For gen- erations, this has been a bountiful lake for har- vesting oysters, long be- fore millions of gallons of oil spilled off Louisiana's coast in 2010. On this day, Slavich's cage-like net pulls up doz- ens of empty, lifeless oyster shells. "It's not good," he said, shaking his head as he pushed the shells back into the water. "We've never seen it like this, not out here." Gulf Coast oyster har- vests have declined dramat- ically in the four years since a BP PLC oil well blew wild in the nation's worst off- shore oil disaster. Even af- ter a modest rebound last year, thousands of acres of oyster beds where oil from the well washed ashore are producing less than a third of their pre-spill harvest. Most worrisome to Slav- ich is the dearth of oyster larvae — future generations of oysters — once found in abundance on shells in the lake, east of the muddy bends of the Mississippi River. Whether the spill con- tributed to the decline is part of an ongoing study; hurricanes, overfishing and influxes of oyster-kill- ing fresh water had already put pressure on the indus- try. "To the extent that oys- ter populations are down, data from government studies have indicated it is likely due to other condi- tions," Geoff Morrell, a BP senior vice president, said in a statement. The millions of gallons of oil that spewed into the Gulf caused fishing grounds to be closed for fear the oil and the chemical dispersant used to break it up would make seafood inedible, ei- ther by direct ingestion of the substances by marine life or by tainting the food chain. More visible were the oil-covered dolphins, birds and other sea life that either died in the oil or required rescue and scrubbing to clean away the oil. But whether the spill crippled spawning and swimming oyster larvae that had not yet settled onto oyster beds isn't yet known, said Thomas Soniat, an oys- ter biologist at the Univer- sity of New Orleans. A BP "white paper" states that Louisiana biologists did not find any oil on the oyster beds they checked in 2010, 2011 or 2012. The pa- per also said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's checks on oysters after the spill either found no hydro- carbons or levels far too low to cause health problems. Louisiana's 2010 assess- ment of oyster stocks, cited as a source, noted that oil wasn't found on beds that were always submerged, even in areas where oil hit nearby shorelines. Regardless of the cause, the harvest is way down, and prices are way up as a result. Louisiana has histori- cally accounted for about half of the Gulf oyster har- vest and about a third of U.S. production. The state has more than a dozen nat- urally producing public oyster bed areas along its coast, occupying more than 1.6 million acres of Gulf bot- tom. Louisiana's public reefs typically would produce anywhere from 3 mil- lion to 7 million pounds of oyster meat a year. In 2010 and 2011, production dropped to barely 2 million pounds, then nosedived to just 563,100 pounds in 2012 before rising to 954,950 pounds last year. Mississippi and Ala- bama, where some oil washed ashore during the spill, also had very poor oys- ter production since 2010. "It's pretty disturbing," said Chris Nelson, owner of Bon Secour Fisheries Inc., an Alabama-based dealer that buys oysters from all five Gulf Coast states. Nelson noted that Lou- isiana oyster prices before Hurricane Katrina were $25 or less per sack. Prices climbed to about $30 after hurricanes Katrina, Gus- tav and Ike, and shot up to more than $40 per sack af- ter the oil spill. Prices now range from $45 to $62 per sack, de- pending on quality — and that's "with many oysters being sold in smaller-sized sacks," Nelson said. Associated Press writer Ja- net McConnaughey con- tributed to this report. SPILL AFTERMATH Gulf oyster harvest has nose-dived ASSOCIATEDPRESSPHOTOS In this July 24photo, third-generation fisherman Randy Slavich, le , and deckhand John Hoffmann pull in oysters in Lake of Second Trees in St. Bernard Parish, La. Oyster harvests along the Gulf Coast have declined dramatically in the four years since the BP oil spill. In this June 24photo, a worker shucks the last of a small amount of oysters they received for the day at P & J Oyster Co., an oyster distributor, in New Orleans. In this July 24photo, deckhand John Hoffmann sorts mature oysters from new larvae in Lake of Second Trees in St. Bernard Parish, La. "I t' s n ot g oo d. We 'v e n ev er see n i t l ik e t hi s, not o ut h er e. " — Fi sh er ma n R an dy S la vi ch By Corneliu Rusnac Associated Press HARBOVAT, MOLDOVA Farmer Sergiu Calmac watches as row upon row of juicy red apples once des- tined for Russia ripen, fall to the ground and start to rot. Two weeks before Russia banned most food from the West, it placed a similar em- bargo on produce closer to home in Moldova, a small Eastern European country seeking deeper ties with the European Union. Farmers here in one of the poorest corners of Eu- rope are already feeling the pain, with some deciding not to harvest some of their fruit and vegetables at all this season. Calmac's pre- dicament is one that farm- ers across Europe and be- yond can expect to some de- gree after Russia expanded the circle of countries tar- geted by its food embar- goes. "A weaker person than me would lose his mind, seeing how his work and investment are being lost," said Calmac, a 60-year- old who has farmed for 26 years. "I have never had a situation like this." In late July Russia banned foods from Mol- dova and Ukraine — both former Soviet republics that the Kremlin wants to keep in its sphere of influ- ence — after they moved to deepen their political and economic ties with the EU. A ban on Polish fruits and vegetables soon followed as Warsaw called for sanctions against Moscow for its ag- gression in Ukraine. Last week Moscow took things further, banning most food imports from the West in retaliation for sanctions imposed as tensions mount over Ukraine. The consequences of this geopolitical tit-for-tat are particularly painful in Moldova because it is al- ready one of Europe's poor- est countries. The average monthly sal- ary is only $300 (225 euros) and 30 percent of its GDP comes from remittances sent home by the 600,000 Moldovans — from a na- tion of 4 million — work- ing abroad. Prime Minister Iurie Leanca criticized the em- bargo, calling it "a viola- tion of the principles of economic cooperation be- tween Moldova and Russia," and promised some com- pensation to fruit farmers "within the limits of possi- bility." A largely agricultural country, Moldova depends heavily on its trade with Russia. Fruit was its larg- est export, with 90 percent of its apples sent there be- fore the ban. The lost rev- enue from apples alone is expected to reach $50 mil- lion, or three-quarters of a percent of GDP. And while the government does not yet have an estimate for the overall loss, the situa- tion will certainly be worse once other produce is fac- tored in. Amid the political ten- sions, Russia has also hinted that some 300,000 Moldovan workers in Rus- sia may no longer be wel- come. The disruptions to Mol- dova's economy also come at an extremely delicate time politically. Moldova has a pro-Russian sepa- ratist break-away region, Trans-Dniester, that longs to be united with Russia and which has put its army on alert amid the tensions in Ukraine. The country also faces elections in November expected to determine whether it stays on its pro- Western course or if politi- cians friendlier to Moscow take over. Wedged between EU member Romania and Ukraine, Moldova has an electorate deeply divided over whether to grow more aligned with the West or Russia. If voters blame their pro-Western government for any new economic pain, that could shift the balance with lasting consequences. "Should the economic effects be felt in Moldova with this embargo, not only would pro-Moscow parties use this to their advantage to try to keep Moldova in Moscow's orbit, but it would also have the effect of de- railing or delaying Moldo- va's aspirations to be part of the European Union," said Stephen Nix, the director of the Eurasia program with the International Republi- can Institute, a pro-democ- racy organization based in Washington. In an interview at his sprawling orchard in Har- bovat, a village in south- ern Moldova, Calmac had only vague criticism for the country's leaders. "I realize that interna- tional relations in our re- gion are complicated but the government could have put more effort into this," he said. Instead, he is most con- cerned about how he will pay his 200 employees and repay 4 million Moldovan lei ($290,000) that he owes to pesticide companies. He is hoping the companies will allow him to postpone his payments because re- paying them on time seems unrealistic given the new market prices. Moldovan apples usually sell for $0.50 a kilogram. Now he stands to earn only $0.04 a kilogram from the juice-making factories that have become his only buyer. He expects to lose 3.5 mil- lion lei ($255,000), which was 75 percent of his 2013 profit. Calmac, also the head of a local agricultural cooper- ative, said matters would be even worse had its mem- bers not worked to diversify their production beyond just fruit and vegetables destined for Russia. They also grow cereal and sun- flowers and together run a small canning plant where they process green peas and tomato paste. It's a lesson others in the region have already learned in recent years due to previ- ous bans by Russia at times of political tension. Lithuania, for instance, reacted to a Russian ban on its food products last year with short-term food dona- tions to charities — and a longer-term drive to enter new markets in China, Aus- tralia and Brazil. Poland, which was also targeted by bans in past years, has worked to se- cure new markets in Asia and elsewhere. Still, the ban on its pro- duce is expected to bite — perhaps by as much as 0.6 percent of GDP by the end of the year — given that ex- ported foods and agricul- tural products to Russia last year were worth $1.6 billion. Much of the focus there has been on apples since Poland is the world's third largest apple exporter, with more than half of its production going to Russia before the ban. As a result, the Kremlin's embargo has sparked a pa- triotic outpouring of sup- port for apples, which is turning them into nothing less than a symbol of free- dom. Newspapers are calling on Poles to eat more ap- ples, saying that could help partly offset the problem, pushing the agenda with articles on the fruit's many health benefits. President Bronislaw Ko- morowski has vowed to drink more Polish cider while his wife shared her recipe for apple pie with one of the tabloids last week. The recipe calls for "two kilograms of Polish apples." WORLD Russia food ban hurts Moldova, bad omen for others ASSOCIATED PRESS In this Aug. 8photo, farmer Tomasz Kalisiak checks apples in his orchard in Debe, Poland. Polish farmers fear the consequences of the Russian ban on food products from the European Union. FOOD » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, August 13, 2014 MORE ATFACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B2