Florida – More clumps of oil washed up on Florida’s Pensacola Beach overnight, and local officials said hotels and restaurants aren’t getting reservation phone calls as the BP Plc spill hits the state’s tourism industry.
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About 400 people are working to clean up tar balls that have come ashore, triple the number from yesterday, and an additional 100 are being trained, BP spokeswoman Lucia Bustamante said today at a press briefing in Escambia County in northwest Florida. A large sheen of oil with thick patches of “tar mats” was about 1 mile to 7 miles off the shore from Pensacola Beach, county officials said.
Florida officials and tourism industry executives are juggling two missions, working to protect the shore from oil spreading from the April 20 spill in the Gulf of Mexico while assuring tourists that the state’s 825 miles (1,327 kilometers) of beaches remained safe so far. Hotels relaxed cancellation policies for wary guests while updating photos on websites to show beaches that remained pristine.
“I’ve talked to hoteliers and it’s not so much that there are cancellations — it’s the reservations line,” Grover Robinson, chairman of the Escambia County Commission, said today at a press briefing. “The phone just isn’t ringing.”
Florida draws about 80 million visitors a year, bringing in $60 billion and making tourism the state’s No. 1 industry, according to Kathy Torian, spokeswoman for Florida’s tourism office in Tallahassee. Tourism accounts for almost one-quarter of the state’s sales-tax revenue, she said.
Of Florida’s 19 million residents, almost 1 million work in tourism, Torian said.
While more and larger tar balls were washing ashore today in some places, including Perdido Key to the west of Pensacola, state and local officials haven’t closed beaches and most oil is being cleaned up within hours, Robinson said.
Dozens of leisure boats dotted the water at Pensacola Beach, in the state’s Panhandle, while tourists went parasailing or sunbathed on the white sand.
“Yes, we’ve had impact, but it hasn’t been a disaster on the beach,” Robinson said.
Pensacola Mayor Mike Wiggins walked this morning along Casino Beach, near a Hilton resort and a restaurant named after Ernest Hemingway, and said he went 100 yards without spotting any tar balls.
Size of a Hamburger
“Then you might see a few, then none again for a long time,” Wiggins said at the press briefing. The biggest tar balls he saw were about the size of a hamburger, he said.
U.S. Representative Jeff Miller, a Republican who represents the Pensacola area, said he flew over the Gulf with the Coast Guard today and saw tar balls mostly at Florida’s border with Alabama. A large sheen of oil was six miles off of Pensacola Beach, and a smaller sheen was close to the shoreline, he said.
Would-be tourists “obviously have a lot of questions,” Jennifer Williams, director of sales and marketing for the WaterColor Inn and Resort in Santa Rosa Beach, said in an interview.
“For the most part, people are still booking,” she said. “Honestly, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
John Gerseth, 43, a part-time plumber interviewed in Pensacola Beach, said “businesses out here are totally freaking out.”
Surfer, Boater
“The reason people come out here and forgo careers is so they can enjoy the beach,” he said. “I’m a surfer, I’m a boater — now that all may be gone.”
Escambia County, which includes Pensacola and Pensacola Beach, has committed $3 million for the cleanup so far, Robinson said yesterday. The county is seeking reimbursement from a $25 million state fund provided by BP.
Workers are picking up tar balls with shovels and gloves, and the county is making cleanup recommendations to BP where it sees fit, he said.
“We have expertise here, we know how to clean up beaches – – we do it 365 days a year,” Robinson said. “There are times when Escambia County has more experience than BP on some of these things.”
Scuba Shack
Business was already down about 80 percent at Pensacola’s Scuba Shack, the oldest and largest scuba-dive operator in the city, said Eilene Beard, a co-owner of the 29-year-old company.
She received an initial payment from BP of $5,000 for lost business, and now has to compile three years of business-tax paperwork and monthly revenue reports to submit in an effort to get additional money.
Scuba Shack had just spent more than $20,000 on a new roof for its store, repairs on its 50-foot boat and equipment refurbishing in preparation for peak season, she said.
The Scuba Shack’s boat, the Wet Dream, has been chartered by BP for oil observation in the Gulf since May 28 “and we haven’t sent out any divers since,” said Beard, 61, who was born in Pensacola.
Fear that oil may be coming has spread beyond the Panhandle beaches. U.S. Representative Kathy Castor, a Democrat from the state, met June 3 with hoteliers, business owners, fishermen and environmentalists in St. Petersburg in west-central Florida.
“There’s tremendous anxiety,” Castor said in an interview.
Why would anyone want to go to Florida when for the same price you can go to the North Carolina outerbanks banks or the beaches at Cape Cod or Martha’s Vineyard where there is no risk of oil pollution. Its not rocket science.
This is not th epart of Florida most VIN readers consider Florida. To us Fl ends after Boca or Palm beach, just the Southern tip of Florida. I might be wrong but I bet this whole thing will become a non issue soon, just like H1N1 and other Scientist scares.
They should make a machine that collects oil from water and go into the oil business it looks like oil is agood business
Due to the bad economy, the tourist industry was suffering anyway. Now BP has been hiring anyone with a boat to work on the cleanup. The hotels are full of press and clean up crews. The dirty secret is that this has been a boon to the gulf coasts economy. BP is paying fisherman to lease their boats more than they would have made fishing. The press corps spends more money at resaurants than tourists. In addition BP is writing checks left and right to business who file a claim. But is sounds good to complain.
This is why even the Republicans in Florida mostly oppose offshore oil drilling. Gov. Charlie Crist will likely become Sen. Charlie Crist and he may join whichever caucus promises to protect Florida’s beaches.