Gulf states, feds angle to protect seafood

Gulf states, feds angle to protect seafood    Gulf of Mexico states and federal health and fisheries officials affirmed a shared commitment to ensuring the safety of seafood coming out of the region, through closures of oil-polluted waters, surveillance and reopening closed waters as soon as possible, consistent with public health goals.
   Representatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency met last week in New Orleans with state health officers and state fisheries directors from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas to coordinate implementing a joint protocol for sampling and reopening that will apply to state and federal waters.
   Together, they will implement a comprehensive, coordinated, multiagency program to ensure that Gulf seafood is safe to eat. 'This is important not only for consumers who need to know their food is safe to eat, but also for fishermen who need to be able to sell their products with confidence,' the agencies said in a statement Tuesday.
   'No single agency could adequately ensure the safety of seafood coming from the Gulf following this tragedy, but in working together, we can be sure that tainted waters are closed as appropriate, contaminated seafood is not allowed to make it to market, and that closed waters can be reopened to fishing as soon as is safe,' said Eric Schwaab, assistant administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
   State and federal regulators reached a critical step toward reopening with their agreement on a shared protocol that will be applied as oil contamination abates in federal and state waters.
   State authorities in Louisiana are applying the protocol to consider the possible reopening of two areas and NOAA is applying the protocol to consider the reopening of two closed areas off the coasts of Louisiana and Florida.
   'The first and most important preventive step in protecting the public from potentially contaminated seafood is to close fishing and shellfish harvesting areas in the Gulf that have been or are likely to be exposed to oil from the spill,' the agencies said.
   In addition, NOAA and FDA are monitoring fish caught just outside closed areas, and testing them for petroleum compounds, to ensure that the closed areas are sufficiently large so as to prevent the harvest of contaminated fish. 'So far, fish flesh tested from outside the closure areas have tested well below any level of concern for oil-based contamination,' the agencies said. ' Chris Gillis