Gulf of Mex­i­co fish­eries are re­bound­ing from the BP Plc oil spill, land­ing more fish last year than in 2009, the year be­fore the worst US off­shore ma­rine dis­as­ter, the gov­ern­ment said. The to­tal catch was 25 per cent big­ger last year than in 2009, and 55 per cent more than in 2010, the Na­tion­al Ma­rine Fish­eries Ser­vice said to­day in a re­port. In April of that year, the Deep­wa­ter Hori­zon oil rig ex­plod­ed, killing 11 work­ers and trig­ger­ing a spill the gov­ern­ment es­ti­mat­ed at more than four mil­lion bar­rels.

"Our fish­eries are on the way up," Har­lon Pearce, chair­man of the Louisiana Seafood Pro­mo­tion and Mar­ket­ing Board, said in an in­ter­view. Some species are do­ing bet­ter than oth­ers, and the in­dus­try will "need an­oth­er year or two of sta­bil­i­sa­tion" be­fore it's back com­plete­ly, he said.

Dean Blan­chard, chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of Dean Blan­chard Seafood Inc, a shrimper based in Grand Isle, Louisiana, said the gov­ern­ment sta­tis­tics are mis­lead­ing and fail to tell the tale of in­di­vid­ual op­er­a­tions. Fish­ing op­er­a­tions are con­strained by ge­og­ra­phy, be­cause go­ing greater dis­tances to find fish rais­es trans­porta­tion costs and eats prof­its, he said.

Bloomberg