12:30pm | Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster was one of about a dozen mayors to visit the location of the Gulf Coast oil spill on Monday.

“There is tremendous work being done here,” Foster said in a phone interview from New Orleans, Louisiana. “The biggest thing is that the locals are working to preserve their way of life.”

Foster attended the trip sponsored by the US Conference of Mayors. Foster visited Saudi Arabia on another trip with the conference in November of last year. He returned to Long Beach on Monday night and will be present for tonight’s City Council meeting.

The mayors witnessed cleanup efforts in the Gulf and ate a lunch of locally harvested seafood to show that the region’s fishing market is still alive and safe to purchase. Foster said that 70% of local fishing is unharmed by the spill.

The Conference of Mayors were hosted by the mayor of Lafitte, Louisiana in an effort to spread a positive perspective on local industry.

As the former CEO of Edison, Mayor Foster said he could relate to dealing with a large industry company being responsible for a crisis.  When the energy shortage threatened California in 2000-2001, Foster said he practically lived in Sacramento.

“In my judgement, I would’ve handled [the BP spill] significantly differently, but I’m not privy to the day-to-day proceedings,” he said of the oil giant’s handling of the disaster. “If I were [BP CEO Tony] Hayward, I would have set up camp and not left until that well was capped. But also, it’s easy in hindsight.”

Foster said he was very impressed with the cooperation and integrated coordination of several large government agencies working alongside BP to harness the spill.

“You’ve got to stay there until the job is done or at least until the danger is passed,” he said. “But the BP people that I’ve met here are working hard and there’s a fairly high regard for them; I can see it in the way they’re being treated by locals.”