This is a statement from Ewell Smith, executive director with the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board regarding the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) closure of federal waters affected by the BP Oil Spill.
“This afternoon, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that they are restricting fishing for a minimum of ten days in the portion of federal waters that have been impacted by the oil spill resulting from the sinking of the BP Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. This area is largely between Louisiana state waters at the mouth of the Mississippi River to waters off Florida’s Pensacola Bay. These waters will be closed to fishing for minimum of ten days.
“We support NOAA ‘s precautionary closure of the affected area. This is just one more step that our Louisiana seafood industry and partners are taking to be proactive in ensuring consumer safety. The nation should remember that this closure only pertains to the impacted area of the Gulf of Mexico, not the entire Gulf. The Louisiana state waters west of the Mississippi River are still open and the seafood being harvested from those areas is safe. The state waters that remain open and unaffected by the spill account for 77 percent of the state’s total seafood production, which has an economic impact of $2.4 billion to our state.”
Source: Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board