Obama vows to protect Gulf way of life
President Barack Obama on Monday vowed to protect the way of life of residents in the oil-hit Gulf of Mexico region, as the US government ramped up efforts to ensure seafood is safe to eat.
Obama announced a multi-agency bid to aid the stricken seafood industry and restore consumer confidence, which includes precautionary closures of Gulf waters that may be contaminated by the oil spill, as well as more rigorous testing of seafood.
"There is a sense that this disaster is not only threatening our fishermen and our shrimpers and oystermen, not only affecting potentially precious marshes and wetlands and estuaries and waters that are part of what makes the Gulf coast so special," Obama said after meeting local officials.
"There's also a fear that it could have a long-term impact on a way of life that has been passed on for generations. And I understand that fear."
After meeting with officials in Mississippi and Alabama, the president said the administration was committed to doing "everything in our power to protect the Gulf way of life so that it's there for our children and our grandchildren and our great grandchildren."
Oil continues to spew from the ruptured well, soiling coastlines in four US states and gushing at a rate of upwards of 40,000 barrels a day, according to the latest government estimates.
The additional government measures to monitor and test seafood are headed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The NOAA began closing off parts of the Gulf to fishing on 2 May, about two weeks after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers and unleashed the oil gusher which has become the worst environmental disaster in US history.
Currently 32 per cent of federal waters in the Gulf are closed to fishing due to oil contamination.
Dockside seafood testers and vessel monitoring systems will help officials identify tainted fish and expand areas to be closed off as needed.
The FDA is to "first target oysters, crab, and shrimp, which due to their biology retain contaminants longer than finfish, for additional sampling," an official statement said.
Source: AP, Fish Information and Services (FIS)
