Study of gulf crab and shrimp funded

A five-year, $1.2 million federal grant to the University of New Orleans will fund a study of crabs and shrimp in the northern Gulf of Mexico, the school said. The goal of the study, to begin in the fall, will be to determine the variability of these species and how they respond to disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported Thursday. Blue crabs and brown and white shrimp, popular staples of Louisiana cuisine, will be studied by the university and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is supplying the funding. The study of crab and shrimp populations will be conducted in an area covering about 120 miles of coastal waters, ranging from Lake Borgne in Louisiana to Mobile Bay in Alabama, researchers at the university's Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences said.