Fishermen vent about VOO program at standing room only meeting at Destin City Hall

DESTIN — Local fishing captains were flabbergasted when they were told the Vessels of Opportunity program will continue to be drawn down because oil from the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe is not the threat to local waters it once was.

Representatives from BP, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Coast Guard attended a town hall meeting Tuesday at the Destin City Hall Annex to answer questions about the response to the BP oil spill.

More than 100 people tried to get answers to why oil debris continues to be collected in the Gulf of Mexico and Choctawhatchee Bay, but more boats are not activated.

Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Dale Vogelsang, who represented the Unified Command, took the brunt of questions and hostility. Vogelsang took heat when he said oil had not been recovered in local waters for weeks and that steps had been taken to make the Opportunity program as fair as possible.

“We haven’t seen any impacts, any products, for at least two weeks,” Vogelsang said. “I understand everyone in this room is upset. I understand you’re POed. I can’t fix that unless I have the information.”

“A lot of the product that’s been turned in is not being reported,” charter boat captain Joey Verkes said. “Sunday afternoon, they turned in 67 25-pound bags of oiled absorbent materials.”

Vogelsang said Vessels of Opportunity had used as many as 76 local boats at one time. That is down to about 27 local vessels now, and that number will continue to be cut. There are other boats from outside Florida that have been contracted to work in local waters crews have specialty training or equipment.

Local captains disputed that.

One of the biggest complaints was that not all boats have been treated the same. The program was changed recently so boats would be rotated in and out of service so everyone would get to work.

However, some boats have worked more than 60 days while others have yet to be activated.

“I have had zero days on the program and my question to (Vogelsang) is what is your definition of rotation?” Capt. Steve Lathi asked.

Okaloosa County Commissioner James Campbell, who owns a charter boat that is contracted with Vessels of Opportunity but has never been activated, tried to redirect the blame away from Vogelsang.

“Don’t blame these guys. It’s BP we need to be looking at,” Campbell said. “They have lied to me on a regular basis.”

The charter boat captains did get some potential good news. Louie Robinson, regional director of the FWC, said all state waters have been reopened to fishing, and tests are being conducted to determine if the federal waters can be reopened.

Robinson also said fishermen did not come close to catching their quota of red snapper this year, and that the FWC is working with the National Marine Fisheries Service to get a second red snapper season open. A meeting to discuss the issue has been scheduled from Aug. 16 to 19 in Pensacola.