Benjamin Alexander-Bloch of the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported this good news. The National Marine Fisheries Service on Wednesday released fisheries statistics that show the 2011 seafood catch in the Gulf of Mexico rebounded to its highest volume since 1999. That's despite the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill that still has fishers fearing less seafood in local waters. Menhaden, often described as a keystone species showing and helping determine the viability of many local species, rose dramatically in Louisiana. It jumped from its 10-year average of about 900 million pounds of catch since 2001 to about 1.3 billion pounds in 2011. Sales of menhaden at Louisiana docks jumped from the $47.9 million average to $100 million. This is quite a different result from what we were told would happen when the Deepwater Horizon accident spread millions of barrels of oil on the surface in 2010.  We were told that the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem would die. Are you beginning to...(Read Full Post)