“Being able to see and hear about the impacts of the environmental devastation first hand will help us to prevent an environmental disaster like this from ever occurring on our coastline,” said the minister.

The Prince Edward Island Minister of the Environment and the New Brunswick Minister of Fisheries Rick Doucet will travel to Louisiana Monday, June 21, to Wednesday, June 23. Meetings and tours are scheduled to discuss the impacts of the oil spill and what went wrong.

Minister Doucet recently called on the other Atlantic Provinces and the federal minister of Fisheries and Oceans to support a symposium on the impact of marine oil spills.

“It is important to learn first hand how these gulf fishing communities are dealing with the spill,” said Mr. Doucet. “As minister of fisheries, I want to ensure our fish and seafood industry is prepared to deal with a similar disaster and my colleague Minister Brown will be viewing the situation from an environmental perspective.”