Department of Commerce declares fishery disaster in the Gulf of Mexico

The U.S. Department of Commerce has declared a fishery disaster in the Gulf of Mexico off the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

The declaration was made due to the economic impact on commercial and recreational fisheries from the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The declaration was made in response to requests from Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour based on the loss of access to many commercial fisheries and the existing and anticipated environmental damage from the ongoing oil spill.

Since May 2, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has closed a portion of federal waters affected by the spill to commercial and recreational fishing. This closure area now includes nearly 20 percent of federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, largely between Louisiana state waters at the mouth of the Mississippi and the waters off Florida’s Pensacola Bay.

The administration has requested $15 million of supplemental funding as a backstop to address this disaster, as well as $5 million of economic development assistance through the Economic Development Administration. In addition, the administration is requesting unemployment coverage for this disaster, and the Small Business Administration is offering economic injury disaster loans, which can help fishermen and other affected businesses.

Commercial fishermen in the Gulf harvested more than 1 billion pounds of fish and shellfish in 2008. In addition, there are approximately 5.7 million recreational fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico region who took 25 million fishing trips in 2008.


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