Title:
Oil Spill Puts Fisheries, Birds at Risk Along US
Gulf Coast
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
See text below
Text:
In May, American officials suspended all fishing in
parts of the Gulf of Mexico because of the huge oil
spill. The restrictions gave scientists time to
study the effects on seafood in the gulf. The order
extended from the mouth of the Mississippi River in
Louisiana east to waters of Pensacola Bay in
Florida. The affected waters include areas off the
coasts of Mississippi and Alabama. On April
twentieth an oil drilling rig, the Deepwater
Horizon, exploded and sank about eighty kilometers
from the Louisiana coast. BP is trying different
ways to stop the leak from a damaged undersea well
and control the spilled oil. The chief of British
Petroleum blames failures by the rig's operator,
Transocean of Switzerland. But BP says it will pay
cleanup costs and all "legitimate claims" for losses
and damages from the spill. BP is also hiring local
fishing boats to help with the cleanup. Eighty
percent of the seafood eaten by Americans is
imported. But the fishing industry in Louisiana is
responsible for about a third of all seafood caught
in the United States. The fishing ban did not affect
state waters west of the Mississippi River. Those
waters represent seventy-seven percent of
Louisiana's total seafood production. Ewell Smith
from the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing
Board says seafood from the unaffected area is safe
to eat. Seafood is worth nearly two and a half
billion dollars to the state. The spill happened
shortly before the start of the fishing season for
crab, shrimp and oysters. Louisiana is the nation's
leading producer of shrimp, oysters, crabs, crawfish
and alligators. Louisiana is also one of the world's
largest producers of what some call "the most
important fish you've never heard of": menhaden.
Menhaden and its oil are used in animal feed and
other products. Another important industry along the
gulf is tourism. Coastal communities waited and
watched for oil to arrive on their shores. Bad
weather interfered with efforts to send out boats to
clean up the oil and watch for the effects on
wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico. Bird populations are
among those at risk of being poisoned by the oil.
Bird rescue groups set up stations. But they say
finding injured birds in the huge spill and sending
out boats to rescue them is a difficult job. And
that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
You can find more reports about agriculture at
voaspecialenglish.com.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
