MANY Gulf Coast fishermen are worried that fish may still not be safe to eat despite Government reports that the fishing grounds are in better shape than was earlier feared.
Some fishermen have reported changes to the marine eco-structure and say that conditions are still a long way from normal. It is not just the oil which is being blamed, but the chemical dispersants being used to remove it following the disastrous BP rig blast three months ago. However, with the well successfully capped the US Government believes the situation is slowly returned to normal. Fishing crews have asked for further meetings because they do not want to be accused to selling contaminated seafood.
The Government National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said last night that the vast majority of the oil from the BP oil spill has either evaporated or been burned, skimmed, recovered from the wellhead or dispersed much of which is in the process of being degraded. A significant amount of this is the direct result of the robust federal response efforts.
A third of the total amount of oil released in the Deepwater Horizon/BP spill was captured or mitigated by the Unified Command recovery operations, including burning, skimming, chemical dispersion and direct recovery from the wellhead, according to a federal examination.
The NOAA says teams of scientists and experts have been carefully tracking the oil since day one of this spill, and based on the data from those efforts and their collective expertise, they have been able to provide useful and educated estimates about the fate of the oil, said Jane Lubchenco, under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.
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