Darrel Frickey has been working with the 'Vessels of Opportunity' program for eight weeks and everyday he waits for the phone to ring.
That call has not come for two weeks now and Frickey worries when or if he will work again.
Frickey says, "There's just so many boats that are out there that are not commercial fishermen. When the 'Vessels of Opportunity' was created it was for the fishermen and here we are today. It's about half and half."
The Coast Guard says with the combination of so many boats in the program and less oil on the surface of the water, the 'Vessels of Opportunity' will soon have to change.
Admiral Thad Allen says, "What we decided to do was come up with a joint vessel of opportunity employment plan that would take us through August. It would overlap decisions that are forthcoming. "
Admiral Thad Allen says those decisions would depend on whether the white shrimping season will open up as it normally does in the third week of August.
That, he says, would allow at least some fishermen to go back to work.
Shrimpers, like Frickey, are confused about what their future may hold.
The Coast Guard says some fishermen will still be needed to recover boom and possibly in the future to help place monitoring devices in the water for NOAA.
As for the oil on the surface, the Coast Guard says there is very little, so in most areas, there is really no need for the fishermen to continue to deploy boom Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser believes now is not the time to talk about downsizing the 'Vessels of Opportunity' program.
Nungesser says, "They either flew at 3 thousand feet or had blinders on cause there's oil all over out there. So was the Coast Guard taking that flight to give BP an excuse to take assests out? I think so."
