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Eli Saslow: SHELL BEACH, LA. -- Johnny Nunez left for work at 5 a.m. out of habit, even though he feared he might never work again. He put on rubber boots, jeans and a T-shirt and drove a mile to the same dock where he had tied a fishing boat for 35 years. The air still smelled like sea salt. The marsh still glistened a crisp blue. The wind still knocked the boats from left to right, left to right, as seagulls circled above. But everything else had changed.

"What am I going to do?" Nunez said.

Soon, more than 20 other men were standing with him on the dock, fishermen who had been told not to fish. The oil was coming, sooner or later, and now there was nothing to do but watch and wait. The older men drank Bud Ice; the young ones drank Red Bull. Their quiet was interrupted by the approaching sound of large sport-utility vehicles traveling toward them on a dead-end road.

It was a small motorcade, and Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) and a local politician walked up to greet the fishermen. They had come with good news, they said. BP was hiring boats to help clean up the oil spill. Here was a chance to get back in the water and back to work.