Baton Rouge, Louisiana – The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries announces that the last 559 square miles of state waters east of the Mississippi River are back open to commercial fishing.
It says 92 percent of state waters are now open.
The emergency declaration Thursday means crabs, shrimp and finfish can be harvested immediately in the reopened areas.
Department secretary Robert Barham says extensive testing by the U.S. food and Drug Administration found seafood from those areas safe to eat.
He says parts of the Barataria and Terrebonne basins and the Mississippi River delta south of Pass a Loutre to Southwest Pass remain closed to fishing.
Maps of the closed areas are available at the department’s website, http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/
