FDA promises answer to Congress soon on Alaska pollock nomenclature issue as pressure heats up  The FDA says they will respond 'soon' to a letter from members of the Alaska and Washington congressional delegations asking FDA to consider changing the name of Alaska pollock to 'pollock'. A petition filed by the Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers to bring the FDA market name of Alaska pollock more in line with 98% of other fish species by eliminating the geographical reference, has received widespread congressional support given the Russian ban on US seafood exports. The name change would prevent the continued use of 'Alaska Pollock Product of Russia' on a label and instead it would have to read 'Pollock', product of Russia. Meanwhile users of Alaskan product could continue using a geographic term such as 'Alaska pollock' so long at it was truthful. The latest research on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill’s impact on the Gulf shows that between four and thirty-one percent of the oil has settled on the ocean floor. According to a study by David L. Valentine, a researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara, about two million gallons of oil is resting on the continental slope between 2,900 feet and 4,300 feet below the surface of the ocean; higher oil concentrations have been noted at even deeper levels. The research also indicated the oil could be making its way into the Gulf’s food chain. Alaskan fishing group representing industry interests along the Trans-boundary line between Alaska and Canada want a joint commission with Canadian officials to discuss environmental impacts that proposed mines in British Columbia could have on the state’s salmon streams. “We feel that the best mechanism by which we can have a say in the Taku, Stine and Unuk watersheds is to have the International Joint Commission (IJC) activated and review these watersheds and the development that Canada is proposing and constructing even as we speak,” said Heather Hardcastle, Trans-boundary Rivers Campaign Director for Trout Unlimited, and co-owner of Taku River Reds in Juneau. Finally, law enforcement officials in the Bahamas are cracking down on spiny lobster poaching. The region’s commercial fishermen have blamed a 30 percent drop in production on the illegal fishing operations. “We have had a bad two to three months and we have taken a big hit,” said Adrian Laroda, president of the Bahamas Commercial Fishers Alliance. “There is simply nothing left and that is worrisome to us because at this rate it going to take us many years to undo the damage being done today.”