Captain commits Suicide; Gulf Oil Spill suspected

Allen Kruse was not a rookie though that was the name of his boat. The 26-year veteren took his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head on Wednesday morning. He was discovered in his boat's cabin by deck hands.

The 55-year-old has long made the Gulf of Mexico his workplace. Friends and family say he loved the waters. They also say that everything may have become too much for him but they may never know his real reasons. He left no note indicating why ultimately he took his own life.

Before the April spill, Kruse was able to make $5-6K a month with chartered boat trips and fishing snapper and amberjack. When the spill happened, his business opportunities evaporated.

BP called Kruse and his boat a "vessel of opportunity". He was employed by the Oil Company to brag booms and skim oil off his beloved waters. He had worked two weeks and had yet to be paid.

In Orange Beach, Alabama, hos hometown, the community is reeling. The Mayor, Tony Kennon said "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."

Marc and Frank Kruse said their brother would still be alive today if he had believed he was making an impact against the oil that was threatening the waters he loved. For Kruse and other Gulf Coast fishermen, the oil disaster was the latest blow in a series of setbacks, friends said.

"This has been a long-term situation. This started in 2004, with a direct hit from Hurricane Ivan, then the next year was Katrina, then skyrocketing fuel prices, fishing regulations, then an oil spill," Capt. Ben Fairey said. "This has been six years that this area has really suffered a lot of stress."

On Thursday evening, Kruse's boat Rookie returned to Orange Beach without it's Captain and with a wreath on deck as a memorial.