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"The spill had a bad psychological effect on the public," said Bill Kane, manager at Coventry Sea Food on Washington Street. "It's scared people away."

Many West Bay seafood outlets are experiencing a significant drop in sales, which they attribute to the public's fear of buying contaminated products.

"The publicity has affected us more than the oil," explained Charles Healey, owner of Healey's Shellfish Co., on West Shore Road in Warwick.

In reality, the site of the oil spill, while vital to shellfishermen, is not the main source for area seafood establishments. Seafood retailers buy from suppliers throughout the state and beyond.

For example, Kane, who said his business has dropped by half, gets most of his seafood from Boston and Canada.

"I don't get much down that way," he said, referring to Block Island Sound.

Ken Amoriggi, owner of Ken Amoriggi Fish Products on Park Avenue in Cranston, can relate to Kane's woes.

Business has fallen by 50 percent, said Amoriggi, who posted a notice on the "take-a-number" dispenser in his store declaring to customers that his seafood is not caught near Point Judith, the peninsula east of Moonstone Beach, where the barge North Cape ran aground 12 days ago and spilled 828,000 gallons of home heating oil into the water.

While the oil spill has had little effect on Amoriggi's ability to stock his store, the challenge has been to lure customers inside.

For those customers who do walk through his doors, Amoriggi is quick to deliver a fact-filled lesson on the origins of his products -- much of which comes from wholesalers in Boston and New Bedford.

"The problem is the people that don't come in and never get the truth," he said.

Governor Almond is the latest and most visible messenger to set the seafood-safety record straight.

In an effort to reassure the public -- and protect the state's fishing industry, Almond, at the behest of the Economic Development Corporation, has made a public-service announcement on TV declaring the safety of the state's seafood.

"It was a common-sense approach," said Jim Taricani, the governor's press secretary. "He didn't want Rhode Islanders to think that they were eating tainted seafood products.

"It was important to get the message across that there was no need to worry," he continued. "Perception means a lot."

The following is a summary of precautions taken by the state Health Department since the oil spill, according to Ernest Julian in the department's chief office of food protection:

-- Embargoed more than 43,000 pounds of lobster and 9,000 pounds of crab harvested near the spill site to ensure that no contaminated seafood reached the marketplace.

-- Closed about 250 miles of Block Island Sound to seafood harvesting.

-- Banned shellfish harvesting in all coastal ponds and coastal waters out to the three-mile limit from Point Judith to Napatree Point.

-- Inspected shipments of seafood harvested in areas not closed because of the spill.

-- Inspected every state seafood processor and many restaurants to determine if any contaminated seafood had entered the marketplace.

Julian said the precautions were an attempt to "make sure the public is clear that what's out there right now is perfectly safe."

Although they say the public's shunning of local seafood is unfounded, neither state officials nor business owners were surprised by it.

"Anyone with an ounce of common sense would be concerned," said Taricani.

"The most important thing right now is for the public to be educated," said Amoriggi. "They need to know there is nothing to fear."