Tuesday
Jul272010
Experts Reassure Public of Seafood Safety As Gulf of Mexico Partially Reopens to Fishing
July 27, 2010 Kyriaki (Sandy) Venetis
The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has done monumental damage to the ecosystems of the region, which will likely take years to be fully restored, but in small ways a recovery has already begun.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reopened 26,388 square miles of Gulf waters to commercial and recreational fishing.
At its closet point, the area that has been reopened is about 190 miles southeast of the Deepwater/BP wellhead, and the area where the majority of fishing will occur is about 220 miles from the wellhead, along the west Florida shelf.
NOAA said that its data has “shown no oil in the area, and the United States Coast Guard observers flying over the area in the last 30 days have also not observed any oil.”