LA, MS and AL fisheries are declared a national disaster

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke declared the Gulf of Mexico a national fisheries disaster area this week, citing the havoc wrought on the region’s multibillion-dollar fishing industry by the Deepwater Horizon blowout. The fisheries of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are covered by the disaster declaration, making them eligible for federal relief funds.

The spill in the gulf has forced the closing of more than 54,000 square miles of federal waters and wide swaths of Louisiana state waters to commercial and recreational fishing. Louisiana’s commercial fisheries, which generated about $2.4 billion in revenue and 27,000 jobs for the state last year, have been particularly hard hit by the spreading slick.

via green.blogs.nytimes.com