VENICE, Louisiana, May 2, 2010 (ENS)
President Barack Obama is getting an up-close look at the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill today. TheㄩPresident traveled by motorcade along the Mississippi River through marshy lowlands southeast of New Orleans toward Venice, Louisiana.
At the mouth of the Mississippi, Venice is community nearest to the scene of the explosion and fire aboard the oil rig Deepwater Horizon on April 20. The drilling rig burned for 36 hours before sinking in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving crude oil spewing from the broken wellhead on the seafloor and from two other breaks in the piping now
strewn across the bottom of the ocean at the rate of at least 5,000 barrels a day.
Effective immediately, fishing is restricted in federal waters most affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, largely between Louisiana state waters at the mouth of the Mississippi River to waters off Florida's Pensacola Bay, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration announced today. The restrictions will last for at least the next 10 days.
In St. Tammany Parish, Parish President Kevin Davis is finalizing a plan with the Coast Guard to mitigate the impact of the spill on Lake Pontchartrain and the parish. The plan includes contracting a vendor to place around 7,000 feet of boom or a similar
containment structure around Lake Pontchartrain.
NOAA fisheries representatives in the region will be meeting with fishermen this week to assist them. Mississippi as well as Louisiana has requested NOAA to declare a federal fisheries disaster.