Will the BP Oil Spill Effect New Jersey’s Shores?

According to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, no. It is their position that it would require an “unlikely sequence of events” to do so.

In a recent article, The Gloucester County Times noted that “. Commissioner Bob Martin has assembled a special Gulf Spill Team to monitor the situation, to create a unique scientific model of the likely path of the contaminated waters, and to develop a plan of action in the unlikely event that the oil does reach New Jersey.”

The local bass and bluefish populations that have already reached the area will not be reduced by the effects of the oil disaster still playing out in the Gulf of Mexico. Local shellfish populations are unaffected as well.

Overall, this means that the prices for NJ local seafood should not see the increases that much of the eastern seaboard has seen due to losses of life and habitat.
New Jersey restaurateurs, seafood distributors and retailers can breathe a sigh of relief that there will be little to no effect of the BP Gulf oil spill on their summer sales.

We are fortunate that this disaster has not impacted NJ and should be mindful of the fisherman and local businesses that have lost so much in the Gulf. We as citizens need to make sure we voice our concern that a similar incident be avoided. People and Planet before Profit and Politics! Care2 has a petition site to stop all new off shore drilling, check it out... thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/859/695/368.