Source: ENS Newswire
Fish caught in a wide area of the gulf near Florida are safe to eat, said federal officials last week Thursday as they allowed commercial and recreational fishing boats back into part of the Gulf of Mexico that had been off-limits due to the massive BP oil spill.
Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, announced the reopening of a third of the overall closed area Thursday night after consultation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and under a re-opening protocol agreed by NOAA, the FDA, and the gulf states.
At its closest point, the 26,388 square mile area to be reopened is about 190 miles southeast of BP's Deepwater Horizon wellhead, and the area where the majority of fishing will occur is about 220 miles from the wellhead, along the west Florida shelf.
Lubchenco told reporters that no oil has been seen in the area for at least 30 days, the seafood tastes fine and rigorous testing of the fish shows no trace of oil or dispersants.
"At the time the area was originally closed, there was a concern that the light sheen observed in the Northeastern portion of the area might enter the Loop Current, a loop separating towards the Florida Keys. That fear, however, never materialized," said Lubchenco.
Before the area was reopened, NOAA had closed 83,927 square miles, approximately 35 percent of Gulf of Mexico federal waters.
Since mid-June NOAA data has shown no oil in the reopened area and the United States Coast Guard observers flying over the area in the last 30 days have also not seen any oil, Luchenco said.
NOAA's trajectory models show the area is at a low risk for future exposure to oil, she said, and fish caught in the area and tested by NOAA experts have shown no signs of contamination.