NEW ORLEANS — The National Marine Fisheries Service will study whether the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has depleted the population of Atlantic bluefin tuna to the point that the food fish should be placed on the endangered species list.
The fisheries service will make a recommendation by May 24, 2011 – a year after The Center for Biological Diversity filed its petition. The center provided enough scientific information to warrant protecting the fish under the Endangered Species Act, the fisheries service said on its website in September.
Bluefin begin spawning in the northern Gulf of Mexico in April – when BP PLC's undersea well blew wild and began spewing millions of gallons of oil – and continue through June. By then, more than one-third of federal waters were closed to fishing because of that oil. The only other place bluefin are believed to spawn is the Mediterranean Sea.
"Any eggs or larva that happen to float into the oil would probably die," said the center's attorney, Catherine Ware Kilduff. Mating itself is stressful, so spawning adults would be more vulnerable to harm from the oil, she said.
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