A clean-up worker is reflected in a pool of beached oil from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in Port Fourchon, Louisiana May 24, 2010. Credit: Reuters / Lee Celano

Reporting by Paul Eckert; editing by Eric Beech
WASHINGTON
Mon May 24, 2010 7:22pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government has declared a “fishery disaster” in the seafood-producing states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama due to an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, making them eligible for federal funds, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said on Monday. “We are taking this action today because of the potentially significant economic hardship this spill may cause fishermen and the businesses and communities that depend on those fisheries,” Locke said in a statement. “The disaster determination will help ensure that the Federal government is in a position to mobilize the full range of assistance that fishermen and fishing communities may need,” he said. 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. …

U.S. declares fishery disaster in 3 Gulf states