Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

  • Collection DOI:
    Principal Investigator:
    Louis M. Kyriakoudes
  • NOAA's Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History documents the experience of people living in Gulf  of Mexico  oil-spill-affected fishing communities. The oral history data complements other social and economic data about the spill collected by NOAA and other governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations.

Interviewee Collection Sort ascending Description Interviewer Date of Interview Location of Interview Affiliation
William Stewart Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

William C. Stewart is a commercial shrimper on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  He was born on February 11, 1963, at Gulfport Memorial Hospital, Harrison County, Mississippi, to Mr. William Stewart (born in 1933, in Woolmarket, Mississippi) and Mrs. Barbara B. Stewart (born in 1940, in New Orleans, Louisiana). His father was an attorney and a judge in Gulfport, Mississippi. His father’s family were schooner captains, loggers, and shrimpers. His mother was a homemaker, who worked as William Colmer’s secretary and as a medical administrator.

Barbara Hester, Louis Kyriakoudes Long Beach, MS NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
Edmund Anthony Boudreaux, Jr. Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Mr. Edmond Anthony Boudreaux Jr. was born in 1949 to Edmond Boudreaux Sr. and Nita Mae Thomas Boudreaux. He is the third of eight children. He is married to Virginia L. Bertucci Boudreaux, and they have three sons, Edmond Boudreaux III, Brandon Boudreaux, and Marcus Boudreaux. Boudreaux is a 1967 graduate of Notre Dame High School in Biloxi, Mississippi. He was an AT&T service technician from 1973 until 2010, when he retired.

Stephanie Scull-DeArmey , Biloxi, MS NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
George V. Jackson, III Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

George V. Jackson, III (b. 1957) is a third-generation commercial fisherman working out of St. Bernard, Louisiana. He was born on February 13, 1957, in New Orleans, Louisiana to George Jackson Jr. (born September 28, 1934, in New Orleans) and Odurna Jackson (born December 12, 1937, in New Orleans). His father was a part-time commercial fisherman, concurrently with being a baker and a millwright. In the late 1960s, his father became a full-time commercial fisherman. His father’s family worked at Jackson Brewery in New Orleans and fished.

Barbara Hester St. Bernard Parish, LA NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
Tuan Nguyen Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Mr. Tuan Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American living in New Orleans who is the Deputy Director of Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corporation and served on Louisiana Congressman Joseph Cao's oil disaster Rapid Response Team following the BP Deepwater oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. Nguyen was born, one of thirteen children, in 1980 in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Thanh Nguyen and Than Nguyen of Phu Quoc, Vietnam.

Linda VanZandt New Orleans, LA NOAA-NMFS
Irvin Eugene “Gene” Stork Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Mr. Irvin Eugene Stork is a retired commercial fisherman. Stork was born on April 23, 1932, in Moss Point, Mississippi, to Mr. Henry W. Stork, a commercial fisherman, and Mrs. Hattie B. Clark Stork. At the time of this interview, Mr. Stork had retired from Dow Chemical Plant and from commercial fishing. He was graduated from high school, after making the All State Basketball team, and he became a captain in the Army during his military service. He enjoys gardening and fishing in his retirement.

Stephanie Scull-DeArmey Pecan, MS NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
Clyde Leslie Brown Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Mr. Clyde Leslie Brown was born July 1, 1932, in Pecan, Mississippi, to Nathaniel Richard Brown (born November 22, 1901, in Canoe, Alabama) and Mary Edna Stork Brown (born February 28, 1906, in Pecan, Mississippi). His father was a farmer who ran a general store in Canoe, Alabama, and his mother was a housewife. His mother’s father was a commercial fisherman in Jackson County, Mississippi, who ran a general store in Pecan, Mississippi. On September 4, 1955, he married Annie Marie Jones.

Barbara Hester Biloxi, MS NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
Joey Keller Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Joey Keller is a crab fisherman living in Fernier, Louisiana.

Scope and Content Note:
He talks about crabbing, Lake Pontchartrain, shrimping, trawl nets, bycatch, regulations, equipment, bait, price for catches, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, Bonnet Carre Spillway, BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, Vessels of Opportunity, crawfish stew.

Stephanie Scull-DeArmey Fernier, LA NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
Thang "Peter" Nguyen Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Mr. Thang "Peter" Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American, former shrimper, now community liaison for Mississippi State University Coastal Research and Extension Center.  He was born in 1967 in Vung Tau, South Vietnam. His parents were fisherfolk and told him the story of escaping Vietnam in the family boat two weeks before the Communists took over South Vietnam, when Mr. Nguyen was just eight years old.

Linda VanZandt Biloxi, MS NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
Wesley Howard Stork Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Mr. Wesley Howard Stork is a retired commercial fisherman on Gulf Coast. Stork was born on December 12, 1926, in Pascagoula, Mississippi, to Mr. Henry Wilson Stork (born in Leavenworth, Kansas) and Mrs. Hattie Belle Clark Stork (born in Pascagoula, Mississippi). His father was a commercial fisherman and the owner of a merchandise store. His mother was a housewife, who worked in the family store. Stork’s father’s name was Hinklemeyer (sp?), and he changed his surname to Stork, which was his mother’s maiden name.

Barbara Hester Moss Point, MS NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute
Oliver Goldsmith Brown Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Oral History

Oliver Goldsmith Brown IV is a retired oil field engineer who worked on a sailing, commercial fishing vessel as a teenager in the 1950s in the Gulf of Mexico. Brown was born on December 3, 1940, in Morton, Mississippi. He grew up in Morton and later moved to Mobile, Alabama, where he lived with his uncle and aunt. Brown's family had a history of involvement in the fishing industry, and he began working as a fisherman at a young age. 

Stephanie Scull-DeArmey West Hattiesburg, MS NOAA-NMFS, University of Southern Mississippi - Northern Gulf Institute