When Will Alabama Offshore Waters Re-Open?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, has re-opened federal waters off the Florida panhandle to fishing.
NOAA officials said they found no signs of contamination in fish and no oil in those waters since July 3.
But oil in Alabama waters may be a different story.
Employees at Zeke's Landing in Orange Beach heard the news Tuesday afternoon about federal waters off Florida being re-opened.
They said since the boundary is actually about 20 miles east of Pensacola, charter boat fishermen and others out of Orange Beach and Pensacola won't see a lot of benefit.
However, Thad Stewart with Zeke's said, "If nothing else, this might open some bill fishing opportunities, and some offshore stuff like that: some longer overnight trips, maybe, so it could potentially be a good thing."
An official with NOAA said the next area where fish will be tested will be western Louisiana, but that the organization hopes to finish testing waters off Alabama and Mississippi in two to three weeks.
However, some people are still worried about oil in the water off Baldwin County.
Joseph Dumas and a friend took a News Five crew to West Beach Pass in Gulf Shores Tuesday where we found three tar balls and what appeared to be oil caked under shells.
Dumas said he worked as part of BP'S beach cleanup crew until Tuesday morning when he got fired for talking to a tourist.
And he said its in the morning you can find oil in the water along the shoreline.
Dumas said, "When you're here in the morning, and the tide is low, you can watch the tar balls back and forth on the beach. They literally had us with sand nets running back and forth trying to catch as many of them as we could."
As for the newly re-opened area, NOAA officials said they will continue to take samples for testing from there.