As per the news report the federal government has triple the size of an area in the Gulf of Mexico that is closed to fishing because of a massive oil spill off the coast of Louisiana. According to NOAA nearly 46,000square miles, or about 19 percent of federal waters has been closed for fishing.
Oil spill in the Gulf has scared off charter fishing customers at the marina here, even though the water they’d normally trawl is still open. The 30 boats were almost all tied to their slips Tuesday and Jerry Andrews, the captain of the Entertainer, had the dock to himself.
The report revealed that the expanded ban covers an area that starts near the Louisiana coast and moves southeast in a diagonal line. From Mississippi to Pensacola, the ban starts about 30 miles offshore. It begins moving away from shore at the Florida-Alabama border. At its eastern end south of Apalachicola, about the midpoint of the Florida Panhandle, the ban starts about 160 miles offshore.
Harlon Pearce, chairman of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, thinks that the latest closure is as much a public relations problem as an impediment to business. He stressed that seafood from the areas not closed is still available and safe to eat. David Krebs, who owns a local seafood market, said the town is tired and frustrated by the continued restrictions and lack of information about the spill.
