Digital Extra

"I've got [lobster pots] six miles away, but I can't bring them up because I don't know where the oil is," Eric Winn, a Point Judith lobsterman, said Sunday.

Peter Schone, whose lobster pots are a safe 100 miles out, has a different dilemma. Schone can't bring his catch into shore because he needs to pump ocean water into his boat to keep it alive.

This he can no longer do.

Commercial fishermen and seafood processors cannot use water from the fouled area, which now stretches from South County to Block Island, to store, wash or process seafood, according to emergency restrictions issued by the Departments of Health and Environmental Management.

"Nobody knows where they can bring live product," Schone complained.

The state's fishing industry employs between 3,000 and 4,000 people, and generates about $500 million in economic activity annually, according to David Borden of DEM. A dollar estimate of damage from the spill has not been formulated, but at a news conference Sunday Governor Almond predicted it would be considerable.

Not only has shellfishing been banned in coastal ponds from Point Judith to Napatree Point and out to three miles offshore, but 105 square miles of Block Island Sound Sunday was closed indefinitely to all kinds of fishing.

"The fishing industry will suffer a significant loss," Almond said.

Almond and Rep. Jack Reed promised to seek federal help for fishermen hurt by the oil spill.

If this help comes, it won't be too soon for the state's 500 to 1,000 lobstermen. So far, they have been hardest hit by the spill. The oil has killed thousands of adult lobsters -- the count as of Sunday was 11,000 -- and decimated the juvenile lobster population as well.

"What I don't understand is how they let the oil get in the pond," a frustrated Winn said, referring to Point Judith Pond.

It's not just lobstermen who have been hurt.

The oil has contaminated the coastal pond breeding grounds of winter flounder, a "multimillion" dollar fishery in Rhode Island whose stock is already perilously low, DEM's Borden said.

"This will do nothing but make matters worse," he said.

The businesses who buy lobster and fish from the state's fishermen are also feeling the effects of the spill.

On Saturday, about a dozen Health Department inspectors began embargoing lobsters and crabs from wholesalers throughout South County. Between 50 and 100 wholesalers were visited and an undetermined amount of lobster and crab seized.

"Nobody likes to have their food embargoed," said the Health Department's Ernest Julian, but he pointed out that this measure was necessary to keep contaminated seafood away from consumers.

"There's nothing on the market right now that's contaminated," Julian said.

Nonetheless, health inspectors will also begin inspecting fish retailers and restaurants to ensure that no contaminated seafood is being used, he said.

Fishing and shellfishing operations hurt by the spill can file a claim with the barge's owner with Turnabout Services LTD, officials said. The number to call is 800-995-4045.