The damage from a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will exceed $5 billion, a World Wildlife Fund expert said on Monday.
"It is still too early to give precise estimates of the damage, which the oil spill may cause to regional ecosystems, because oil leak has not stopped and we are unaware of its real scale. But it is clear that the material [damage] will exceed the damage caused by an oil spill in Alaska in 1989, which was about $5 billion," Alexei Knizhnikov, who heads the WWF's program on ecological policies of the oil and gas sector, said.
He said the oil spill will affect fishery and tourism in the U.S. most of all.
"The oil spill is becoming larger. A colossal damage has already been caused to wildlife and animals included in the Red Book, and it will grow further," the expert, who has arrived in the U.S. to study the situation, said.
An explosion which caused the oil spill ripped through the Deepwater Horizon, some 50 miles off the Louisiana coast, on April 20. The blast claimed the lives of 11 people who were working on the rig and injured other 17. The rig sunk two days later, with oil continuing spilling out into the sea.
The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico has reportedly reached the coast of Louisiana, where a state of emergency has been declared, and is approaching Florida and Alabama.
U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Louisiana on Sunday to supervise clean-up operations. He said the British Petroleum company, which operated the Deepwater Horizon rig, would have to cover the damage caused by the oil spill.
On Sunday, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) imposed a ban on fishing in U.S. coastal waters.
Some 6,000 U.S. National Guard troops have been involved in clean-up operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
The accident, which is seen as a challenge to Obama's plans to build more oil rigs along the Atlantic shore, poses a major threat to the Gulf of Mexico's flora and fauna. The Gulf, which hosts some 4,000 drilling platforms, is home to many endangered animal species.
MOSCOW, May 3 (RIA Novosti)
