The BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is bad news for everyone, but it impacts and will potentially destroy the livelihood of the thousands of independent-minded watermen (and waterwomen) who ply their trade in the Gulf’s waters. There’s only one place to look for a solution: the free market.

Jerome E. Dobson wrote an open letter to BP chief executive, Tony Howard in the May 7 Washington Post. Dobson, a Jefferson science fellow in the State Department’s Office of the Geographer, president of the American Geographical Society, and a professor of geography at the University of Kansas at Lawrence, recommends, “Engage the public. Trust private enterprise. Trust the judgment and ingenuity of the American people.”

BP, he argues, can’t afford to clean up the entire mess on its own. He also believes that hiring fisherman, barge captains, recreational boaters, and others who live along the Gulf Coast “will be viewed as bribery or charity, both of which are bitter gall to them.”

So instead, says Dobson, make those same folks an offer they can’t refuse. “Offer to buy back your oil at a price that will entice them to skim and deliver it to you.” Give them some ideas about how to skim oil, how to avoid health complications, and promise to clean up their boats when the work is done. After that set them free to work, not as employees, but as independent entrepreneurs—the position they like the best.

“You will be astounded,” writes Dobson, “by the clever solutions they will invent for harvesting, separating and transporting oil.” I would go so far as to add, that we should anticipate one or more major innovations that will become standard practice in cleaning up oil on the sea.

Dobson’s article should be a bucket of ice water over the heads of all who think Washington has the solution to every problem. Somehow we’ve forgotten that it wasn’t government that made this country prosperous and great, but the creativity, ingenuity, and industry of ordinary Americans. Calling on that same creativity, ingenuity, and industry to rescue the Gulf Coast (and their corporate balance sheet) is far and away the best advice BP ever received. Let’s hope they have the sense to take it.