PUNE: The Pune Restaurants and Hoteliers Association on Wednesday said that the recent oil spill off Mumbai coast does not have any bearing on the fish varieties sold in the city as they are procured from outside the State during the monsoon season.

“This is reference the reports and certain perception among the people that because of the oil spill near Mumbai sea coast, fish in Pune is not safe to consume. We would like to clarify that the fish coming to Pune between June 15 and August 19 every year is from outside Maharashtra. Hence their quality is not directly related to the oil spill incident,” Pune Restaurants and Hoteliers Association Vice President Jawahar Chorge said in a statement.

Between June and August, fishes come to Pune market from places like Porbandar (Gujarat), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Howrah (West Bengal).

“The fishing activity off Mumbai coast every year is closed for the aforesaid period .Therefore, the fish consignment coming to Pune cannot be impacted by the oil spill, which happened due to the collision between two vessels off the coast of Mumbai,” Chorge said.