Leno wants a piece of the ship

Assemblymember Mark Leno told me yesterday that he's going to pursue one of the suggestions in our oil-spill editorial and see if the state can put a lein on the Cosco Busan. That way California could compensate the local crab fishers, whose livelihood is in danger, and get the money back directly from the ship's owners.

The crab folks are hurting: The governor has suspended all fishing in and around the Bay and within three miles of the coast. And local processing facilities can't accept crab, so they're shut down.

But there are still big crab boats from Oregon, Washington and Vancouver that come down and place crab pots outside of the three-mile limit, Leno told me, and then haul the crab back up north -- where it gets processed and sent back down here as "safe."

It will be a nightmare trying to sort out who actually owns the ship, and if the crabbers sue, it could take many, many years before they ever see the money; the fishermen who sued Exxon over the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill still haven't seen a penny of the $5 billion they won at trial.

So seizing the ship and putting leins on it may be the only way anyone's going to see any compensation for this mess.

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