4200 square miles of the Gulf closed to Royal red shrimping after tar balls are found

Over 4,200 square miles of federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama were closed Wednesday to royal red shrimping.

The precautionary measure was taken after a commercial shrimper found tar balls in his net.
The tar balls are being analyzed by the U.S. Coast Guard to determine if they are from the Deepwater Horizon/BP spill.
Fishing for royal red shrimp is conducted by pulling fishing nets across the bottom of the ocean floor – that’s where officials believe the oil was captured.
Royal red shrimp are caught in Gulf waters deeper than 600 feet and are the only species targeted with trawls at these depths.
The more common Gulf shrimp species are brown, white and pink shrimp and are caught in waters less than 300 feet deep.
The agency has received no reports of tar balls from fishermen that target other species in that area and the fisherman who reported catching the oil had trawled earlier in the day for brown shrimp in shallow waters without seeing tar balls.  


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