Hundreds of thousands of people living along the US Gulf Coast have hung their economic lives on lawsuits against BP. Fishermen…are seeing their way of life threatened with extinction – both from lack of an adequate legal settlement and collapsing fisheries…Louisiana’s seafood industry, valued at about $2.3bn, is now fighting for its life…[M]any people…continue to be afraid to eat seafood from the Gulf, for fear of contamination by BP’s oil and dispersants…[T]he fact that the State of Louisiana received $18m from BP for the Louisiana Seafood Safety Plan to test seafood, water and soil from across the coast is not helping to assuage fears… Dr Ed Cake, a biological oceanographer and a marine and oyster biologist, [said] that many of the Gulf fisheries "have already collapsed" and the only question is "if or when they'll come back…If it takes too long for them to come back, the fishing industry won't survive"…