Shrimpers began trawling big stretches of Louisiana coastal waters Monday as the fall season got under way, in the latest sign that the Gulf of Mexico's fishing industry is starting to bounce back from a massive oil spill.
But some other types of shellfish remain largely off limits to commercial fishermen, and scientists are unsure about the long-term effects of the Deepwater Horizon accident on marine life. Demand for seafood from the Gulf also has fallen amid consumer wariness, despite stepped-up testing by health authorities.
"We've come a long way, but we're nowhere near a sense of normalcy yet," said Martin Bourgeois, a marine biologist at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
The start of Louisiana's shrimping season coincided with the reopening of more state waters to commercial fishing over the weekend, roughly a month since oil stopped gushing from a broken BP PLC well. Boats can now fish in roughly 80% of Louisiana waters, compared with about 60% last week. In May, only about a third of state waters were open for fishing.
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