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The U.S. government has declared a fishery disaster in the seafood-producing states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama due to a BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, making them eligible for federal funds, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said on Monday.
Louisiana's $2.4 billion seafood industry supplies up to 40 percent of U.S. seafood supply and employs over 27,000 people. The state is the second-biggest U.S. seafood harvester and the top provider of shrimp, oysters, crab and crawfish.
The Commerce Department said the disaster declaration was made in response to requests from Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.
The statement did not give any figures or say when funds would be dispersed.
Gulf of Mexico states have lost access to many commercial fisheries as a blown-out oil well spews hundreds of thousands of gallons (liters) of oil into the Gulf every day, a disaster that threatens to become the worst U.S. oil spill in history.
PHOTO CAPTION
A clean up crew works near the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana May 21, 2010.
Reuters
