US officials Friday closed a wildlife refuge spread across islands off the Louisiana coast to help staff trying to clean up an oil spill washing up on the park's shorelines.
"The US Fish and Wildlife Service has closed the Breton National Wildlife Refuge to public entry," US officials said in a statement, adding the first oil had been spotted on the park's shores late Wednesday.
"The refuge closure is important to keep the public safe, to minimize disturbance to nesting colonial sea birds, and to allow personnel conducting cleanup operations and recovery efforts to work safely and efficiently."
Staff were already being deployed to clean up and remove the oil, washing up on the islands about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of New Orleans from a huge slick in the Gulf of Mexico triggered by the explosion and sinking of an oil rig more than two weeks ago.
"The first shoreline impact of oil from the spill was confirmed late Wednesday afternoon at Breton, with oil on both sides of the southern half of the Chandeleur Islands," the statement added.
The wildlife refuge, home to endangered species of brown pelican, least tern and piping plover, is one of the oldest in the country having been set up in 1904, and spreads across almost 7,000 acres (2,800 hectares).
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) meanwhile also extended the area in the Gulf of Mexico that is closed to commercial and recreational fishing, adding it would remain closed until May 17.
Some 4.5 percent of Gulf of Mexico federal waters are now barred to fisherman compared to the just under three percent closed down on Sunday following the April 20 oil rig explosion.
"NOAA stands shoulder to shoulder with Gulf coast fishermen and their families during these challenging times," said NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco in a statement.
"NOAA scientists are on the ground in the area of the oil spill taking water and seafood samples in an effort to ensure the safety of the seafood and fishing activities."
Commercial fishermen in the Gulf harvested more than a billion pounds of finfish and shellfish in 2008.
And there are also 3.2 million recreational fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico region who took 24 million fishing trips in 2008, NOAA said.
The British energy company BP is racing to contain the leak, hemorrhaging some 200,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon rig, that sank two days after the explosion.
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