Seafood Processor Tries a New Way To Recoup Oil Spill Losses

The Kraver Family owns four seafood processing and distribution businesses. All have been directly and severely impacted since the Gulf Oil Spill. Yet, very little money has been paid out to the companies to 'make them whole.'

At Jubilee Seafoods, the iconic building on Wentzel Avenue in Bayou La Batre, no money has come from BP. Patrick Kraver says they've submitted everything the giant oil company wanted, but no money has been paid. His father, Walton Kraver, told me a few weeks ago on the day Kenneth Feinberg visited the bayou, that a CPA submitted his claim, and any CPA could look at it and know that its legitimate.

The Kravers said they did receive $14 thousand for their crab processing business, but shut it down. Another processing business, Deep Sea Foods, received $109 thousand on a $357 thousand dollar claim for just the month of April, and not a penny since.

Patrick Kraver estimates that current and future business losses could run into the millions, much of which depends on when consumers taste and perception about Gulf Coast seafood starts to change.

With lessons learned under the BP claims process, the Kravers took the advice of the American Seafood Processors Association, and hired a private company to handle claims under the Feinberg administration. Pestcoe, Schwede and Associates, a Milwaukee firm, have a track record of collecting insurance claims for businesses after Hurricane Katrina.

"We just hope they'll do a better job than we did," says Patrick Kraver.