NEW ORLEANS (AP) - As a giant oil slick lapped at southeastern

Louisiana's ecologically sensitive coast, chefs, restaurant owners

and seafood dealers were certain it would squeeze the state's $2.4

billion seafood industry. They just weren't sure how badly or for

how long.

Federal officials shut down fishing for at least 10 days from

the Mississippi River to the Florida Panhandle on Sunday because of

the uncontrolled gusher spewing massive amounts of oil into the

Gulf of Mexico.

"It's called fear of the unknown," said Ricky Power, a

suburban New Orleans seafood distributor. Power was certain,

however, that prices will rise and availability will fall.

Among the unknowns: how much longer it would take oil giant BP

to stop the flow of oil from the site of last week's offshore rig

explosion; how successful would be the attempts to keep the oily

water out of seafood habitat; and how the oil would affect

reproduction of oysters, shrimp, crabs and finfish.

"This isn't just going to be a short-term thing," said Ben

Wicks, owner and chef at Mahony's PO-Boy Shop, a neighborhood

eatery in a converted shotgun house in uptown New Orleans.

Harlon Pearce, chairman of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and

Marketing Board, said he applauded the federal government's

decision to shut down fishing for at least 10 days to "ensure

everyone that all seafood in the Gulf is of the highest quality and

is safe to eat."

Award winning chef Donald Link, whose Herbsaint and Cochon

restaurants in New Orleans are popular with tourists and locals

alike, said another problem is the publicity surrounding the slick.

He didn't want anyone to think that Louisiana seafood had

disappeared or was unsafe, or that New Orleans restaurants were

closed.

"I'm probably more concerned at this point with Louisiana

getting a bad rap in the media and tourism dropping off than I am

lack of seafood," said Link.

Clam growers in Cedar Key, a small island community that juts

out into the Gulf of Mexico from Florida, echoed Link's concern,

even though the oil remained far from their muddy waters. Fishing

and boat tours proceeded as usual Sunday, and local oysters and

clams were on restaurant menus, though owners warily eyed news from

the spill to the west.

Hype over oil damage would be as economically destructive as the

oil itself, said Brian Mattice, a clam grower and owner of Island

Hoppers charter boat company.

Clams are crucial to Cedar Key, yielding $45 million in dockside

and wholesale sales in 2007, the most recent numbers available. A

drop in sales, potentially followed by contaminated water, would be

catastrophic, Mattice said.

"Even if we get a little bit of oil and a little bit of media

coverage, we're done," Mattice said.

That's not to say he's not worried about his supply - or his

suppliers. His restaurants could survive a few weeks or even a few

months without Louisiana seafood, he said, but many of the oyster

growers and independent commercial fishermen who supply him were

within the trajectory of the oil slick. They might not survive a

prolonged closure.

The slick was threatening marshes and bayous east of the

Mississippi River in Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes - one of

the state's most abundant oyster producing areas, as well as a

source of shrimp, crabs and finfish.

"It's going to be a huge disaster for St. Bernard," said Kevin

Vizard, owner and chef at Vizard's restaurant on Magazine Street in

New Orleans. He ticked off a list of towns and communities -

Hopedale, Shell Beach, Delacroix - that are havens for commercial

and recreational fishing.

Rocky Dictharo, a seafood dealer in the Plaquemines Parish town

of Buras, agreed. His family, he said, has fished the area for four

generations. His brother still fishes. He said fishermen aren't

just worried about the shrimp and oysters, but about the

microscopic life they feed on. If much oil infiltrates the area, it

could devastate seafood in that area for years. "When you kill

that food chain, nothing's going to come back to this area," he

said.

The broader picture wasn't as bleak. Plenty of areas west of the

Mississippi were unaffected and were not forecast to suffer from

the spill, noted Ewell Smith of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion

Board. Smith, who also applauded the decision to halt fishing, said

the board was working to assure the public thst Louisiana seafood

was available and safe.

He noted that the closure did not affect the entire Gulf. The

waters west of the Mississippi River are still open and represent

more than three-quarters of Louisiana seafood production, he said.

"We have over 300 miles of coast," Smith said Friday. "We

should be fine unless this thing gets totally out of control."

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