GRAND ISLE, La. (MarketWatch) -- The BP oil spill has fouled the waters and devastated the fishing community on this island at the very tip of Louisiana, but it's hard to find anyone here who favors a moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil companies and fishing vessels have peacefully co-existed in the Gulf for decades. And even though the spill threatens the livelihoods of most Grand Isle residents, it seems few -- if any -- favor pulling the plug on what is the state's biggest source of revenue.

"It will trickle down; the economy will get even worse," said Perry Clement, a local who serves as a deck hand on several fishing boats, and is struggling for income. "It's the delicate balance we have, with the oil and the fishing."

Dean Blanchard has lost a lot more, and yet he feels the same way. His Dean Blanchard Seafood Co. is the region's biggest shrimper. This year was supposed to be a bonanza, hauling in $100 million in product, he says.

Now, Blanchard may have to start fishing off Costa Rica in order to maintain his business. But he nixes the idea of a moratorium on drilling.

"We've been living together a long, long time," Blanchard said of the oil drillers. "They closed the wrong thing down. They should have closed the government down."

Indeed, it's hard to find anyone in the state of Louisiana that favors President Barack Obama's plans to put a cap on deepwater drilling in an attempt to deal with safety issues arising from the BP spill. Not even the industry most damaged by it, fishing, is in favor of the ban.

While the state's fishermen have provided the nation with a third of its seafood and kept New Orleans' renowned restaurants stocked with plenty of product, Louisiana and its offshore fields lead domestic oil production and the industry is the state's biggest job generator. It's also put many a patron at the table in those restaurants, locals say.

Partner, not polluter

Fishermen here don't look at the oil industry as a potential polluter. They look at it as a partner. The rigs in the Gulf are not eyesores to them; instead the subsea structures on which they rest act as artificial reefs that are potentially rich with products they can sell.

Oil debris attached to an oyster shell on the shoreline of Raccoon Island, Louisiana. Reuters

Hundreds of offshore platforms and rigs in the waters off Louisiana provide the state with 30% of its gross domestic product, says Michael Hecht, president of the trade group Greater New Orleans Inc. Each deep-water rig employs roughly 300 people averaging nearly $100,000 a year in income.

With roughly four other workers directly supporting each rig worker, that translates to 22,000 jobs that could be lost with the ban. The loss of the large income of these workers is expected to create a huge ripple effect throughout Louisiana.

Hecht and other civic leaders, including Louisiana Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, have been pleading with the Obama administration to rethink the moratorium. They say the BP spill is an anomaly, as drillers have been operating in deep water for more than two decades without major problems.

This week, U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman, who presides in New Orleans, ordered that the drilling ban be lifted. But the Obama administration has vowed to appeal, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has said he may issue another, modified drilling ban that addresses Feldman's concerns.

The plan to keep a lid on deepwater drilling could be fatal for numerous companies and an economy that's just getting revitalized five years after Hurricane Katrina swept through the region and flooded three-fourths of New Orleans.

Katrina added jobs, spill takes away

Hecht and others say that Katrina's economic impact ended up being positive; the region added jobs in construction and reformulated its way of doing business. The rebuilding effort helped the area ride out the 2009 recession better than any other area, as New Orleans' unemployment remained at a low 3%.

The spill, and the subsequent impact on fishing and the oil business, will kill jobs, Hecht says. While it could easily go longer, even if the ban lasts exactly six months, it will take another 12 to 18 months for drilling to get back into full swing.

"You're talking about impoverishing Louisiana," he said. "It's an extremely inelegant solution to a complicated problem."

A volunteer holds an oil-soaked pelican in Louisiana. Reuters

One thing that federal officials may not have picked up on is the region's changed attitude, or at least the perception of it.

After Katrina, New Orleans was viewed as a city seeking a handout. Many now say they don't necessarily want a generous settlement from BP; they just want to get back to work.

Peter Vujnovich, an oyster fisherman, has been out of work for a month. But he says: "I hope BP steps up to the plate. Instead of making us whole, keep us whole."

Leslie Bertucci, owner of R&D Enterprises, which supplies drilling equipment to deepwater rigs, echoes that sentiment.

"I personally had equipment on the [Deepwater] Horizon rig that we lost, although that is the least of my concerns," she said. "I don't really want to make a claim. We just really want to go back to work."

And Steve Perry, chief executive of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors' Bureau, says the region is even willing to work with BP to help mitigate the issue.

"We have a better chance if we have a strategy that works with them," he said.

Oilmen don't see relief

As expected, Louisiana oilmen vehemently oppose the drilling ban, but they don't expect to see any relief soon.

Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, says the Obama administration seems likely to use the ban as a bargaining chip to push through a climate change bill. That bill is expected to include a "cap-and-trade" provision that could force companies to trade pollution credits based on their emissions levels.

According to Briggs, the drilling ban is unnecessary because the spill resulted from poor planning and management on BP's part. There are more than 590 producing wells in the Gulf's deep water, he adds. Deep water is defined as anything 500 feet or more below the surface.

"He [Obama] doesn't have to do what he's doing," he said. "What the hell does he know? He's a freaking Chicago guy."

Two hours west of New Orleans, the city of Lafayette is somewhat of an oil hub. Oilfield service companies along with drillers and marketers are worried that city will be crippled by the drilling ban.

Badger Oil Corp., a privately held oil producer in Lafayette, is too small a company to drill in deep water, but it's feeling the effects of the government's skittishness. The Minerals Management Service, under heavy scrutiny for its cozy relationship with the industry, is rethinking some of its routine permits, Badger officials say.

MMS issued, then withdrew three Badger permits several weeks ago. The agency is expected to come back and grant them, but it's clear MMS is operating in a different environment.

"Nobody wants to be the guy that grants the permit where there was a problem," said David Etienne, Badger's vice president in charge of exploration.

Two industries damaged

For both the oil and fishing industries, however, the BP experience has been devastating.

Perhaps no one is feeling the ban more than Kirk Rousse. Born and bred on the Bayou, Rousse knows that fishing and oil are engrained in the culture. He grew up fishing and worked on a number of boats when he was younger.

The father of six children, Rousse started his own trucking business with his wife, Sheila, to transport oilfield equipment to vessels that would take the gear to offshore platforms, most of them deepwater rigs. Now it's questionable whether Rousse will be able to work in either industry.

Rousse has lost 60% of his business due to the drilling ban and sees the rest of it hemorrhaging. He expects he'll have to look far and wide to find income.

"I'm going to have to leave my family," he said. "Six months from now, I probably won't be living here."

To him, and to numerous others in the region, oil and fishing are joined at the hip in Louisiana.

"A lot of people who retire from the oilfield, they start fishing," Rousse said.