The City Wire special report: A ‘slimy’ vacation, part 2

Editor’s note: Roy Hill, a faculty member at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith and freelance writer for The City Wire, provides the second and final first-person account of a family vacation to an Alabama beach. Link here for his first report.

photos and story by Roy Hill

As we organized for our trip to Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, I was most excited about the fishing. I planned on some scuba diving, too, but Alabama’s Gulf Coast is known more for its fishing than its diving.

Fishing is in my blood, as it is for many other Arkansans. I caught my first fish when I was only four, and I couldn’t wait to try my hand at saltwater angling in Alabama. I read everything I could about surf fishing, Alabama saltwater rules and regulations, marine fish identification, even recipes. I learned that the best bait fish to use were LY’s, which is how the locals pronounce the word “alewives,” and that I’d need a special net to hoist my catch up onto the pier from which I planned to fish.”

But the oil spill laid waste to those plans. And while the oil spill is hurting the tourism industry all along the Gulf Coast, it’s killing the businesses that specialize in recreational fishing. The beaches and the restaurants and the souvenir shops are all still open. But federal, state and local authorities have shut down the fishing.

‘HANGING BY A THREAD’
According to AquaStar Charters, no fishing boats are being allowed out of Perdido Pass and into the Gulf of Mexico, and only boats assisting with oil spill cleanup are able to get on the water.

Jeannie Zlendick, an employee for Top Gun Tackle and Top Gun Charters wonders which will last longer, the spill or the business where she works.

“We’re hanging by a thread,” said Zlendick. “We’ve got a claim in with BP right now, but we don’t know how long this is going to last. Right now we’re okay, but at anytime, it could turn around.”

The place I planned on fishing the most was the Gulf State Park fishing pier, but it’s been closed to fishing since June 4. Operated by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and hailed as the largest fishing pier on the Gulf of Mexico, the pier was destroyed in 2004 by Hurricane Ivan, and rebuilt. It re-opened in July 2009, but didn’t reach its first anniversary before being closed to fishing due to the oil spill.

I visited the pier one morning, before the winds picked up and waves obscured the view of the fish. As we walked up to the entry pavilion, I passed an older gentleman leaving the pier. I asked him if he’d seen anything, and he said, “Lot’s of fish we can’t catch.”

He was right. In the shallows, we saw at least 20 stingrays parked on the sandy bottom. A little farther out, schools of spadefish and redfish circled the pilings, and huge chains of mullet cruised under the pier. At the pier’s end, 500 yards out into the Gulf of Mexico, large swarms of silvery jack circled and a five-foot-long shark patrolled lazily, looming up out of the dark water, and then sinking back down.

PIER PRESSURES
Assistant Pier Manager Theresa Carlisle said that the lack of fishing pressure on the pier has made it a lot easier to see fish.

“You can see fish everywhere,” said Carlisle. “On a normal day, you can’t see fish like today because of all the fishermen, and the boats that come near the pier to fish, and the ones out netting at night.”

While the fish were numerous, the people were few. Counting me, my wife, and my son, there were fewer than 10 people on the pier.

Carlisle told me on a typical summer day, they’ve had as many as 360 fishermen, with 1,100 total visitors. To get a more accurate count, the staff at the pier multiplies those numbers by 1.25, as children aged 11 and under get in free, and thus leave no record of a paid admission. Carlisle can’t wait for the oil spill crisis to end.

“We get up every morning whining about it,” said Carlisle. “It just makes us sick.”

The fishing closures were too much for some people to take, and up and down the stretch of Orange Beach we are staying at, we could see a few determined folks wetting their lines.

Zlendick said even with the tough conditions, people were still doing some fishing.

“There’s still fishing in the Intracoastal Waterway, and inland fishing at Wolf Bay and Little Lagoon,” said Zlendick. “But it’s tough, because with the oil slick, nobody has any live bait to sell. People aren’t supposed to be surf fishing right now, but they aren’t stopping them. Nobody’s gotten in trouble for it so far.”

SHORE FISHING
Mike Bragg of Decatur, Ala., has been coming to Orange Beach since the late 1970‘s. The oil spill ruined his chances for deep sea fishing, but he still caught a few fish from the beach.

“From all the news reports and TV stories, we thought it was going to be awful, but we already had reservations made and we decided to just come on down,” said Bragg. “It’s been much better than we expected. We’ve seen a few tar balls, and that’s about it. The wind comes up and it all seems to go east, which is bad news for Florida.”

As I watched Bragg cast some cut bait, he hooked a gray shark, about 12 inches long. But before he could get his hands on it, the shark spit the hook, and flopped back into the surf. Mike said he had caught a few ladyfish and some eating-size pompano.

“I didn’t keep them because I wasn’t sure about them being in the oil,” he said.

‘NOT AS BAD’
The oil spill also ruined the fishing plans of a group of Arkansans staying at the beach.

Nick Ratliff of Little Rock, along with his friend Jacob Duke of Benton were walking along the surf line, looking at the water when I found them.

“We’ve been here since last Sunday,” said Ratliff. “We can’t get in the ocean. It’s all closed. Nobody is fishing. We were going to go to Destin, Fla., to fish, but they closed the beaches down there, too.”

Even without the fishing, Ratliff thinks people with vacation plans for Alabama’s Gulf Coast should still follow through.

“They do a pretty good job of cleaning up the oil,” Ratliff. “Come on down, it’s still fun.”

Zlendick echoed Ratliff’s opinion.

“We need a lot of customers. Around here, the oil spill is not as bad as it’s been made out to be.”