BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has ordered the immediate closure of shrimp harvesting in an area that may be vulnerable to an ever-widening oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.
Secretary Robert Barham issued an emergency closure, effective at 6 p.m. Thursday, in territorial seas from the south pass of the Mississippi River to the eastern shore of Four Bayous Pass.
Barham says the closure was suggested after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's projections indicated the area might become vulnerable to oil, which began spewing when a drilling rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico last month.
