[StBernard] Blessing Of Fishing Fleet Was A Sad Affair This Year

[Westley Annis]

Blessing Of Fishing Fleet Was A Sad Affair This Year 
The annual blessing of the boats usually is a joyous event that marks the
start of the spring fishing season in one Louisiana parish, but this year
the mood was somber. 

CHALMETTE, La. (May 4, 2010)--The blessing of the boats in Louisiana's St.
Bernard Parish had more the air of a wake this year as an offshore blowout
continues to gush oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Some years, as many as 200 craft, most of the working boats, lined up at the
Gulf Outlet Marina in Chalmette to be sprinkled with holy water by a waiting
priest. 

On Sunday, only four boats floated by for the blessing and none was a
commercial vessel.

The marina tried to maintain a festive atmosphere, but a deepening pall
seemed to hang over the gathering as the federal government announced that
it was closing a large swathe of the Gulf of Mexico to all commercial and
charter fishing.