Water closed to royal red shrimping

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has closed 4,213 square miles of Gulf of Mexico federal waters off Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama to royal red shrimping. The measure was taken Wednesday night after a commercial shrimper discovered tar balls in his net. Fishing for royal red shrimp is conducted by pulling fishing nets across the bottom of the ocean floor. The tar balls found in the catch may have been entrained in the net as it was dragged along the seafloor. Other fishing at shallower depths in this area has not turned up any tar balls and is thus not impacted by this closure. The tar balls found in the shrimp net are being analyzed by the U.S. Coast Guard to see if they are from the Deepwater Horizon/BP spill, NOAA said. (Source: NOAA, 11/24/10)