Allen Kruse didn't have much choice but to join [BP's program to enlist out-of-work fishermen], his brother said -- he used to make between $5,000 and $6,000 a day chartering his two boats, income that had ceased.So, he signed his boats up for the BP program, known as "Vessels of Opportunity." He worked for two weeks straight, his family says, but hadn't been paid.
Allen Kruse called the program "madness," they said, and told relatives it was a sham.
His brothers said he told them that cleanup boats were put in the water close to shore, so people would think they were making a difference.
"It's just a dog and pony show," said Marc Kruse. "Send them out. Ride around. Let everybody see them. Bring them back in."
A BP spokesman did not return CNN's calls for comment. The company has repeatedly said it's doing everything it can to fund and facilitate cleanup efforts. [Ed: see this post regarding that claim]
[…]
"There's a lot of people on the edge. We feel hopeless. We feel helpless. We don't feel like there's an advocate out there," said Tony Kennon, mayor of Orange Beach, a close-knit fishing community.
[…]
[Allen] Kruse, 55, [the] charter boat captain who had been hired by BP to help clean Gulf waterways and render them safe, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound […] on board one of his own vessels.
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