Even if local seafood lovers don't see as much as a tar ball on their favorite Texas beaches this summer, they can expect to be hit in the wallet when they order their favorite shrimp, oyster or crab dishes.
The oil spill continuing to spread off the Louisiana coast is threatening supplies of all types of seafood and prices, inevitably, will rise.
"We're lucky, we're on the clean side of the spill for now," said Randy Evans, the chef of the hip green restaurant Haven. "But everyone's costs are going to go up. It may be a heavy meat-and-potato summer."
On Friday, government officials extended a ban on fishing in the waters affected by the spill until May 17. The closed area — 4.5 percent of Gulf federal waters — is a jagged, six-sided blob that stretches from Louisiana east to the coast of Florida. Under normal circumstances, the eastern half of the Gulf is so abundant that it is estimated to account for up to 40 percent of all domestic seafood harvested in the continental United States.
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