There’s no oil, but Tampa Bay area fishermen, tourist trade hurt by Gulf oil spill

Gov. hears how fishermen, tourism hurt by spill

ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — Not a drop of oil from the massive Gulf spill has touched Florida’s west coast beaches, but commercial fishermen and others who depend on the tourist trade here told Gov. Charlie Crist on Monday that they’re hurting anyway.

Long-line commercial fishermen who catch grouper — a signature dish in Tampa Bay area restaurants — told Crist in Madeira Beach that closing areas of the Gulf to fishing because of the oil spill is threatening to cut into their hauls.

Later, at a large resort hotel in St. Pete Beach, a group of business owners, tourism officials and civic leaders implored the governor to spend some of the money provided by BP PLC on a TV advertising campaign in the Midwest and Northeast, where they say potential visitors are still canceling trips because of the perception that Florida’s beaches are already fouled by oil.

Oil-wary Floridians did get one bit of good news Monday: A new Gulf current model issued by marine scientist Robert Weisberg at the University of South Florida shows prevailing winds during the next few days carrying the spill farther away from the Panhandle, where tar balls continue to wash up on the white sand beaches.

On Pensacola Beach, Attorney General Bill McCollum watched workers pick up tiny tar balls Monday, then blasted BP for spending money on ads to rehabilitate its image instead of pouring more money into cleanup efforts.

“I’m a bit angry out here today,” McCollum told reporters.

The patchy oil slick now stretches from 100 miles east of the Texas-Louisiana border to near the middle of the Florida Panhandle, and down to the open sea about 150 miles west of where Crist met with grim business owners and civic leaders at St. Pete Beach.

Keith Overton, senior vice president of the 800-room TradeWinds Island Resorts, which hosted the meeting, said the hotel has absorbed at least $50,000 in losses from cancellations tied to the oil spill. He suggested that the rest of the hotels and condos — which total 35,000 rooms in Pinellas County alone — are hurting similarly.

“It’s a staggering number,” said Overton, president of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. “And all this occurred without a single drop of oil touching our beaches.”

D.T. Minich, executive director of the tourism bureau for St. Petersburg and Clearwater, told Crist his agency needs $2.5 million for ads to reach prospective visitors before they scrap their trips.

“We desperately need to be out in the markets where we can produce business, up in the Midwest and Northeast,” Minich said. “That’s where perceptions are the worst.”

The ever-optimistic governor, who is running for the U.S. Senate as an independent, didn’t promise anything but said he would do everything he could to make sure money from BP reaches them. The Gulf Oil Spill Economic Recovery Task Force, intended to help businesses recover losses from the spill, is scheduled to meet Wednesday in Tallahassee.

“It’ll work out,” Crist said. “It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be challenging, it is not going to be easy. We’ll lose business, but we’ll get through it.”

Along the peninsula’s west coast and in the Florida Keys, the state initiated its “Sentry Plan.” Boats are being sent out to look for approaching oil to give targeted beaches at least 48 hours warning. Planes might also be used.

Crist said he expects to call a special legislative session “as early as July” to address the future of oil drilling off Florida’s coasts.

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Associated Press writer Brendan Farrington in Pensacola Beach contributed to this report.