The Federal On-Scene Coordinator for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has announced that the Gulf Coast Incident Management Team has started transitioning back to National Response Center reporting.

The primary function of the NRC is to serve as the sole national point of contact for reporting all oil, chemical, radiological, biological and etiological discharges into the environment anywhere in the United States and its territories. The reported information is passed to a local Coast Guardsman who investigates the report and takes appropriate action.

"This is another important step towards meeting our goal of returning the shoreline to as close to pre-spill conditions as possible while managing the scale of the response to meet conditions on the ground," said Capt. Duke Walker, FOSC for the Deepwater Horizon Response.

Officials here expect that the coastlines of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi will complete this transition by mid June.