The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced it was closing commercial and recreational fishing for at least 10 days in affected waters between Louisiana at the mouth of the Mississippi River to Florida’s Pensacola Bay due to the ecological impact of the BP Oil Spill. The suspended fishing is across a wide swath of Gulf of Mexico waters as a spreading oil slick spewing from the sunken Deepwater Horizon is creating the biggest USA environmental catastrophe. President Barack Obama visited Louisiana for a first-hand look at what is fast turning into the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. His administration heaped pressure on London-based BP Plc, the well owner, to halt the out-of- control flow.
More than 6,800 square miles of federal fishing areas, from the mouth of the Mississippi to Florida’s Pensacola Bay, were closed for at least 10 days, beginning Sunday, by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Administrator Jane Lubchenco said government scientists were taking samples from the waters near the spill to determine whether there was any danger.
This area accounts for the bulk of U.S. production of oysters and shrimp and the Gulf supports a $2 billion seafood industry that is second only to Alaska. “There are finfish, crabs, oysters and shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico near the area of the oil spill,” Roy Crabtree, NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Administrator, said in a statement. “The Gulf is such an important biologic and economic area in terms of seafood production and recreational fishing.” NOAA forecasts showed the spill heading toward the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coasts.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
