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DESPITE repeated assurances, more than half of all Americans will not eat Gulf seafood following last year's disastrous oil rig explosion, according to a new poll.
The newspaper USA Today, which can be bought on British news stands, surveyed 1,500 of its readers, and sixty per cent of them replied saying they will not eat Gulf seafood because they fear it is still contaminated. One reader even wrote, "Don't eat any seafood from the Gulf if you value your health. The gulf is absolutely polluted. I don't think it will ever be clean."
This reluctance is broadly in line with other surveys carried out in the United States during the past few months and it is worrying both fishermen and seafood restaurant owners.
It is now more than a year since the BP oil spill in the Gulf which severely disrupted fishing operations in the region and severely dented American confidence in seafood.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has now re-opened the entire area to fishing after carrying out exhaustive tests. The NOAA insists there is no contamination and no threat to the health of anyone who eats fish from the Gulf. More than 10,000 samples have been taken, and results have consistently been 100 to 1,000 times below levels of concern.
But many Americans are refusing to believe these assurances. Just a few months ago President Obama ordered Gulf Seafood for the White House kitchens and the American armed services were instructed to buy fish from the region.
The contamination concern is that crude oil contains hydrocarbon chemicals that may be linked to cancer, and they can taint seafood with flavours and odours, says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which works closely with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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