"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday it had closed 4,200 square miles/10,880 square kms of federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico to royal red shrimping after a commercial shrimper discovered tar balls in his net.

NOAA said in a statement it had taken the measure 'out of an abundance of caution' and that it only applied to royal red shrimp, which are found at the deep depths where the tar balls of weathered oil apparently were trawled from.

The tar balls are being analyzed by the U.S. Coast Guard to determine if they are from the catastrophic BP oil spill."

Ed Stoddard reports for Reuters November 26, 2010. [2]