[ti:Oil Spill Puts Fisheries, Birds at Risk Along US Gulf Coast]
[ar:Bob Doughty]
[al:Agriculture Report]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English 
[00:03.02]Agriculture Report.
[00:04.63]American officials have suspended 
[00:07.99]all fishing in parts of the Gulf 
[00:10.29]of Mexico for at least ten days 
[00:13.22]because of the huge oil spill. 
[00:16.33]The restrictions will give scientists 
[00:19.32]time to study the effects 
[00:21.74]on seafood in the gulf.
[00:23.67]Sunday's order extended from 
[00:26.72]the mouth of the Mississippi River
[00:29.08]in Louisiana east to waters 
[00:32.25]of Pensacola Bay in Florida. 
[00:34.99]The affected waters include areas 
[00:38.41]off the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama.
[00:42.70]On April twentieth an oil drilling rig, 
[00:47.49]the Deepwater Horizon, exploded 
[00:50.23]and sank about eighty kilometers
[00:53.03]from the Louisiana coast. 
[00:55.21]BP is trying different ways 
[00:58.50]to stop the leak from a damaged 
[01:00.99]undersea well and control the spilled oil.
[01:05.16]The chief of British Petroleum blames 
[01:09.08]failures by the rig's operator, 
[01:11.44]Transocean of Switzerland. 
[01:14.30]But BP says it will pay cleanup costs 
[01:18.66]and all "legitimate claims" for losses 
[01:22.45]and damages from the spill. 
[01:24.88]BP is also hiring local fishing boats
[01:29.60]to help with the cleanup.
[01:31.66]Eighty percent of the seafood eaten
[01:35.08]by Americans is imported. 
[01:37.44]But the fishing industry 
[01:39.81]in Louisiana is responsible 
[01:42.79]for about a third of all seafood 
[01:46.21]caught in the United States.
[01:48.14]The fishing ban announced Sunday 
[01:51.50]did not affect state waters 
[01:54.24]west of the Mississippi River. 
[01:56.73]Those waters represent seventy-seven 
[02:00.96]percent of Louisiana's 
[02:03.01]total seafood production. 
[02:05.75]Ewell Smith from the Louisiana 
[02:08.79]Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board says 
[02:12.46]seafood from the unaffected 
[02:15.26]area is safe to eat.
[02:17.25]Seafood is worth nearly two and 
[02:21.42]a half billion dollars to the state. 
[02:23.78]The spill comes shortly 
[02:26.40]before the start of the fishing season
[02:28.76]for crab, shrimp and oysters. 
[02:31.81]Louisiana is the nation's 
[02:34.26]leading producer of shrimp, 
[02:36.78]oysters, crabs, crawfish and alligators.
[02:41.01]Louisiana is also one of the world's 
[02:44.75]largest producers of what some call 
[02:48.11]"the most important fish you've never heard of": 
[02:52.46]menhaden. Menhaden and its oil 
[02:57.00]are used in animal feed and other products.
[03:00.74]Another important industry 
[03:03.47]along the gulf is tourism. 
[03:05.71]Coastal communities have been waiting 
[03:08.45]and watching for days for oil 
[03:11.06]to arrive on their shores.
[03:13.17]Bad weather has interfered 
[03:16.16]with efforts to send out boats 
[03:18.59]to clean up the oil and watch 
[03:21.14]for the effects on wildlife
[03:23.31]in the Gulf of Mexico. 
[03:25.24]Bird populations are among those 
[03:28.23]at risk of being poisoned by the oil. 
[03:31.34]Bird rescue groups have set up stations. 
[03:34.76]But they say finding injured birds 
[03:39.07]in the huge spill and sending 
[03:41.12]out boats to rescue them 
[03:43.24]will be a difficult job.
[03:45.79]And that's the VOA Special English
[03:49.21]Agriculture Report, 
[03:50.76]written by Jerilyn Watson 
[03:53.00]with Brian Wagner reporting 
[03:55.49]from Louisiana. I'm Bob Doughty.