Reporter's Notebook: Fishermen Left With Nothing To Do But Scout Oil

JUNE 16, 2010 — -- For decades, the charter fisherman in Venice, La., have made their livings taking groups of tourists out on trips where they'd haul in on a typical day hundreds of speckled trout, the catch of choice in the region.

But since the devastating explosion on the BP oil rig in April, the boats of these seasoned captains have instead been filled by media as fishing tourists cancel their charter bookings and members of the press clamor for a chance to see the damage the oil is wreaking on the coastal habitats.

During my recent two week trip to Louisiana for ABC News, I spent many of my days on these boats, sent out to survey how different islands and marshlands were coping as the oil lapped up on their shores.

But even more moving than the thick gobs of oil were the captains who stood beside me witnessing the destruction, distraught that the very fishing spots they'd grown up visiting are slowly being destroyed.

One captain was even moved to tears as his son, who had tagged along for our ride, asked innocently, "Daddy, is that the oil y'all are talking about?"

And it was.

I saw the oil so thick that the captains of our boat had to get out and push us from the grip of the substance.

I saw birds flying overhead, unaware that their usually white stomachs were now stained brown with crude oil, and lethargic porpoises, not diving in and out of the surf like they had been just a few days earlier but instead sluggishly swimming through the slick forming on the water's surface.