THE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon, everybody.  I just had to -- a chance to tour this staging facility here at Theodore along with Admiral Allen and Governor Riley.  I also want to acknowledge that Congressman Jo Bonner and a number of our elected officials are here and they just received an extensive briefing about what is taking place. 
 
It is from this staging area（集结待命地区） and 16 others like it all across the Gulf Coast that our response to the oil spill（漏油，浮油） is being carried out.  I saw and many of you had an opportunity to see what is being done to repair and decontaminate（净化，去污） boom, to train volunteers, and to help with the cleanup efforts.  And their hard work and their sense of purpose on behalf of the people of Alabama as well as the Gulf Coast is inspiring.
 
I had a chance during the discussions with the state and local officials to reiterate（重申） to them what I've been saying all across the coast, and that is that we want to coordinate at every level -- federal, state, and local -- to make sure that we are leaving no stone unturned in terms of our ability to respond to this crisis. 
 
Now, what I've heard from a number of local officials during my trip today is what I’ve heard from folks on each of the four visits that I’ve made to this region since the Deepwater Horizon explosion happened in April.  There’s a sense that this disaster is not only threatening our fishermen and our shrimpers and our oystermen, not only affecting potentially precious marshes（沼泽） and wetlands and estuaries（河口） and waters that are part of what makes the Gulf Coast so special -- there’s also a fear that it can have a long-term impact on a way of life that has been passed on for generations.
 
And I understand that fear.  The leaders and the officials who are with me understand it.  Governor Riley understands it.  He has been a regular presence on our daily coordinating calls, and a relentless（无情的，残酷的） advocate for Alabama throughout this process.  And we are absolutely committed to working with him and all the local officials who are behind us to do everything in our power to protect the Gulf way of life so that it’s there for our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren.
 
Now, everybody here has had experiences dealing with disasters.  As we were flying over from Mississippi via helicopter, you could see the footprints of buildings that had been decimated（摧毁） from Katrina.  But in some ways what we're dealing with here is unique because it's not simply one catastrophic event.  It’s an ongoing assault whose movements are constantly changing.  That's what makes this crisis so challenging.  It means that it has to be constantly watched.  It has to be tracked.  We're constantly having to redeploy resources to make sure that they're having maximum impact.  And we also need to make sure that we are constantly helping folks who have been hurt by it, even as we're stopping the oil from spreading into more and more areas.
 
So that means that this response effort has to happen on a bunch of different tracks.  It means containing as much of the oil as we can as quick as we can.  After seeing an initial oil collection plan from BP, we went back to them and said that they need to move faster and more aggressively.  And they have now come back with a plan to accelerate steps to contain over 50,000 barrels a day by the end of June, two weeks earlier than they had originally suggested.  Their revised plan also includes steps to better prepare against extreme weather events and other unforeseen circumstances in the months ahead, addressing another one of our concerns.  And we’re going to continue to hold BP and any other responsible parties accountable for the disaster that they created.
 
Dealing with the aftermath（余波，后果） of this spill also means protecting the health and safety of the folks who live and work here in Theodore, here in Alabama, and here on the Gulf Coast.  As part of this effort, I’m announcing a comprehensive, coordinated, and multi-agency initiative to ensure that seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is safe to eat.  Now, I had some of that seafood for lunch and it was delicious.  But we want to make sure that the food industry down here as much as possible is getting the protect -- the protection and the certification that they need to continue their businesses.  So this is important for consumers who need to know that their food is safe, but it's also important for the fishermen and processors, who need to be able to sell their products with confidence.
 
So, let me be clear:  Seafood from the Gulf today is safe to eat.  But we need to make sure that it stays that way.  And that’s why, beyond closing off waters that have been or are likely to be exposed to oil, the FDA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are increasing inspections of seafood processors, strengthening surveillance（监督，监视） programs, and monitoring fish that are caught just outside of restricted areas.  And we’re also coordinating our efforts with the states, which are implementing（贯彻，执行） similar plans.
 
These safety measures are on top of steps that we’ve taken to protect workers who are involved in the cleanup efforts.  And part of the training that you observed here today involves making sure that workers are sticking to the protocols（协议） that are put in place so that when they are out there on the waters or here on land working with potentially toxic materials, that they're taking that seriously and that they're not cutting corners on safety, because we don't want tragedies on top of the tragedy that we're already seeing.
 
Officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are inspecting all the staging areas like this one.  They're boarding vessels off the coast to make sure that BP is complying with its safety obligations.  If they see a problem, they’ll work with BP to resolve it as quickly as possible.  And we’re also monitoring air and water across the Gulf Coast for hazardous（冒险的） chemicals and pollutants that could endanger oil spill workers or anybody else, so we can act swiftly should any health risks arise.
 
Now, these health and safety measures are just part of our overall effort to deal with the spill.  All in all, we are confronting the largest environmental disaster in our history with the largest environmental response and recovery effort in our history.  Over 27,000 personnel are working to safeguard our coasts and protect endangered wildlife.  More than 5,400 skimmers（撇油器） , tugs（拖船） , barges（驳船） and other vessels -- some of which you saw as we came into this facility -- are currently responding to the spill.  Over 2 million feet of containment boom and over 3 million feet of absorbent（吸收剂） boom are being used to contain the spill, and millions of more feet are available.
 
In addition, we have authorized the deployment of 17,500 National Guardsmen and women to assist in the response effort.  So far, only about 1,600 have been activated, and the rest stand ready to help whenever our governors choose to call on them.
 
Across the Gulf Coast, Guardsmen are supporting local, state, and federal authorities in a number of ways, from reconnaissance（侦查，搜索） to hazardous material training.  Guard aircraft are also assisting in the response and helping to coordinate the vessels that are out on the water.  Here in Alabama in particular, about 200 of the roughly 450 Guardsmen who've been activated have received specialized training to assist BP with claims processing.  So put simply, this is a multi-purpose force that's prepared to handle almost any challenge, and I hope our governors put them to good use.
 
So, the full resources of our government are being mobilized to confront this disaster.  But it's not only important for everyone from the federal government on down to do all we can -- it’s also important for us to work together to make sure our efforts are well-coordinated.  That’s why Governor Riley and the other Gulf Coast governors have been on a daily call with my administration, seven days a week, since this disaster occurred.  That’s why we’re going to continue to work hand in hand with state and local authorities on every front, from containing as much oil as possible to protecting our coasts, until we put this tragic ordeal（痛苦的经验，折磨） behind us.