Gov. Bob McDonnell has asked federal officials to include Virginia’s oyster industry among the commercial fisheries severely damaged by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
McDonnell sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke seeking a disaster declaration under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
The declaration is necessary for Congress to consider appropriating money to the industry, which according to a Virginia Institute of Marine Science report will lose $30.1 million this year.
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