The tale of the BP oil spill is one of almost unrelieved economic disaster for small businesses along the Gulf Coast. But while for many businesses it’s the biggest catastrophe since Hurricane Katrina hit five years ago, others are finding opportunity.

All of that comes amidst renewed speculation of when the nearly three-month-old gusher will end. A BP official told the Wall Street Journal that the British oil giant hopes to have a relief well that will finally stop the gusher at the Deepwater Horizon site drilled by July 27. But other BP officials said today that prediction was overly optimistic, and they looked to an end of the spill next month.

The spill has been a nearly unparalleled catastrophe for the fishermen who have made their livelihoods from the Gulf’s rich waters for generations. And it’s hammered many in the tourism industry. Even in the oil industry, small players have suffered.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the unknown nature of whether the spill can be cleaned up and the fishery restored to its former productivity is making it even tougher on the fishing communities of Louisiana and neighboring Gulf Coast states.

"This is really different," Kim Chauvin tells the Journal. "We've been trying to figure out what plan B is, and then that gets knocked out of the water so we try plan C, and now we're down the alphabet." Her shrimp-trawling company, run with her husband David, is waiting for BP to come through and pay their company’s claim that it's losing $6,250 a day.

BP has, under pressure from the government, set up a $20 billion fund to pay small businesses and individuals hit by the spill. And the Small Business Administration is coming through with disaster loans, so far amounting to $11 million. That number’s likely to climb as the disaster continues.

The fishing communities, though, aren’t the only ones being hit by the spill’s effects.

In May, David Dewberry, a boat captain and the owner of Pelican Adventures in Destin, Florida, told Portfolio.com he had already experienced numerous cancellations from the tourists he takes on chartered fishing trips. And that was before oil showed up on the beaches of nearby Pensacola.

He figured then he would lose most of his summer business this year, and he counts on the summer for most of his $1 million in revenue.

And you can multiply that across the Gulf Coast.

Ryan Lambert tells McClatchy newspapers his Cajun Fishing Adventures business last year was sending out 12 charter boats a day, and his lodge was full. All that’s in the past with the Deepwater Horizon well pumping an estimated 60,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf every day.

"This is a special place, a national treasure," Lambert told McClatchy’s Brent Frazee. "What we have here, you won't find anyplace else in the world. I've fished and hunted here my entire life, and I'm very attached to it. To see it dying before my very eyes, it makes me literally sick."

As if empty sport fishing charters and docked commercial fishing boats weren’t enough to bring on despair, there’s the oil industry itself. Many small players say they’re being severely damaged by a moratorium on deepwater drilling put in place by the Obama administration.

They’ve sued to lift that moratorium, which keeps service companies from making money ferrying food and supplies to the rigs in the Gulf. U.S. District Judge Martin L.C. Feldman struck down the moratorium June 22, saying the Obama administration hadn’t justified the halt.

But the administration has appealed, and on Wednesday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar urged the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to restore the ban at 33 sites in the Gulf’s deep waters, saying the nation can’t risk a second incident while dealing with the Deepwater catastrophe.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for today, and it will be a question of whether the well-being of the small businesses servicing the deepwater drilling rigs outweighs the risk the government fears.

But while the suffering of the fishing, oil services, and tourism industries certainly outweigh any benefits, there are those companies that are making a killing off the Deepwater disaster.

Clean Harbors of Norwell, Massachusetts, is expected to see $300 million in sales from the disaster. Naperville, Illinois-based Nalco expects to sell $40 million of the chemical dispersant Corexit, an increase from $2 million in a normal year, Time reports.

Mark Miller of New York-based Miller Environmental Group tells Time he’s likely to have his best year ever cleaning up the mess made by the spill. He’s hired nearly 1,500 people in the past month.

"It's a huge event," he told Time. "I'm very happy with the work I have."

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Kent Bernhard Jr. is News Editor of Portfolio.com