One year after the Gulf oil spill, seafood suppliers in Tulsa have a positive outlook

TULSA - Wednesday marks one year since the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

More than 200 million gallons of oil flowed into the Gulf of Mexico after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon.

11 men died and oil gushed into the Gulf for nearly three months.

The seafood industry is still struggling, but locally, there is a positive outlook on our seafood supply.

Louisiana natives say this summer looks a lot brighter for the Gulf than one year ago

Locally owned, Hebert's Specialty Meats, imports most of its seafood like oysters, shrimp and crab straight from the Gulf, and the owner says he intends to keep it that way.

Cajun Ed Richard, says when the spill happened he had fears he would have to change up the menu, possibly offering less seafood.

"The prices went up, the supply dropped, because people were buying up large quantities," said Richard.

He hasn't had to raise prices yet, but seafood continues to cost more than it did before the spill.

A year later the recovery is considered a mixed bag, the beaches look clean, but the oil is still in some of the marshes.

"They're still talking four and five years from now, you know, what kind of affects that the oil has on the seafood and we just don't know. We kind keep going from month to month and season to season," said Richard.

so far, the supply is still strong and the seafood coming in from the coast is still safe to eat.

"There's not a whole lot of difference to us and what we're seeing and we're pretty confident now that it's been a year, it's gonna stay that way, we hope," said Richard.

Richard says, ironically, it won't be the gulf oil spill that could cause him to raise prices, it would be the rising cost of fuel. he has no plans to do that yet.