NOAA Closes 4,200 Square Miles of Gulf Waters to Royal Red Shrimping

[Generic Other]

Today, out of an abundance of caution, NOAA has closed 4,213 square miles of Gulf of Mexico federal waters off Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama to royal red shrimping. The precautionary measure was taken after a commercial shrimper, having hauled in his catch of the deep water shrimp, discovered tar balls in his net.

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Following the report of tar balls, NOAA was in contact with shrimpers involved in royal red shrimping in this area. Only a handful of the approximately 250 permitted royal red shrimp fishermen are currently active in the fishery. The tar balls are being analyzed by the U.S. Coast Guard to determine if they are from the Deepwater Horizon/BP spill.

This decision was made in consultation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The closure becomes effective at 6 p.m. EST and does not apply to any state waters.

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These waters were closed to all commercial and recreational fishing earlier this summer because of the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill and were reopened to all fishing on November 15 after hundreds of seafood specimens sampled from the area, including royal red shrimp, passed both sensory and chemical testing.

MORE:

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20101124_closing.html

When I click on the links to testing results, it says the "1,735 samples tested so far were collected from June to September..." No new tests since September other than sniff tests. WOW. My tax money at work. Paying people to sniff and grope.

[Desertrose]

1. Kick...

[Poboy]

2. k&r