. >> reporter: jeffries is pastor of the chalmette first baptist church. he's one of several local ministers who have been coming out to the docks every day to support the fishermen. >> can't solve all of the world's problems, but sometimes just knowing that there's someone who's there who cares is more than sufficient. >> reporter: jeffries is concerned that despair is growing across the entire area. >> basically what i hear is a lament, a sorrow, because of what was and what now is. itseems to me to be too meager a choice of words to simply say that a lifestyle is at stake here. it is the entire context of a person's life, the whole backdrop, the fabric, that is being torn asunder by this crisis. >> reporter: so much in these communities revolves around the seafood industry. and that has been thrown into turmoil, from boat captains who can't fish and therefore can't hire deckhands, to the mechanics who aren't being hired to do repairs and the small businesses that aren't selling supplies. according to us government figures, more than 6,000 vessels and 40

. >> reporter: marian alphonso runs in a marina in chalmette. >> we have no shrimp boats going out, because they can't go shrimping. so shrimp boats don't buy, so we can't sell fuel, and so we have a lot of people that won't go fishing because of the oil out there. >> reporter: in new orleans' french quarter, the approaching storm didn't seem to disturb very many residents. at jazz joints like vaughn's, where a joyous crowd rocked to the music, signs of the oil spill were everywhere. drummer derrek freeman, bearing a shirt that said, "wetlands, not oil," sounded sanguine. >> i think its just more testing of the resolve of the people of new orleans and the gulf coast. >> reporter: but trumpeter kermit ruffins sounded a note of optimism. >> let's help clean up the oil spill, y'all. that gulf coast, baby. >> reporter: so the beat goes on for new orleans and the coast as it prepares for yet one more long weekend. >> brown: and still to come on the newshour: "egregious" executive compensation; dissatisfaction on the left; shields and brooks; spain's economic woes; and english around the globe. b