While BP CEO Tony Hayward was attending yacht races, the first wave of oil from the Deepwater Horizn hit Florida’s Gulf shore beaches beginning a new chapter in the damage caused by the spill. The beaches are a major source of tourism and could be closed for month as crude washes up on the sand

The largest  beaches at Fort Walton, Panama City, and Destin are quickly becoming covered with tar balls and pool of crude which will only grow larger The wind pushing the spill is now moving it East. The oil has gone quickly from being an event that is harming fishing to one that is undercutting tourism.

Douglas A. McIntyre