Oil Spill Causes NOAA To Close Regions In The Gulf

NOAA is restricting fishing for a minimum of 10 days in federal waters most affected by the BP oil spill, largely between Louisiana state waters at the mouth of the Mississippi River and waters off Florida’s Pensacola Bay. The closure is effective immediately.

The news is likely to mean that liability class action suits against BP plc (NYSE: BP) will increase sharply.

The organizations which are working on capping the well and breaking up the spill have begun to burn the crude. Two in-situ burn occurred today, and up to 1,000 gallons of oil were burned

The effort to put a containment dome should begin within the day. If the dome does not work Representative Edward Markey said “The amount of oil per day could actually rise from 5,000 to 60,000 barrels,” according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Alternatively, “crews hope to lower a 100-ton concrete-and-steel box a mile under the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday to cut off most of the hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil spewing from a blown-out well,” according to the AP.

The NOAA map of the predicted spread is below:

Douglas A. McIntyre