WaPo: Gulf Coast oil spill could wreck region's tourism and fishing industries

Gulf Coast oil spill could wreck region's tourism and fishing industries

By Peter Whoriskey
Thursday, June 3, 2010


The gargantuan blob of light Louisiana crude floating in the Gulf of Mexico has already closed oyster beds, shut down shrimpers, cancelled fishing tournaments and panicked beach hoteliers from New Orleans to Key West.

But the economic impact of the nation's worst ever oil spill may be just beginning.

With the vast majority of the oil floating offshore, where it will land and whom it will affect have become a guessing game fraught with worry. Wherever the oil goes, it threatens to obliterate billions of dollars for the region's tourism and fishing industries.

"It's like waiting for a hurricane to hit," said Mike Voisin, owner of Motivatit Seafood, which harvests oysters from the gulf. "We don't know where it will go. Every day we look at the forecasting maps."

"We're praying hard," said Ed Schroeder, director of the tourist bureau in Pensacola Bay, Fla., where people are wishing away an oily sheen about 10 miles off the coast.

A report of tarballs on the beach led the news in the local paper last week, though it is uncertain whether the tar came from the spill. "If we were picking a time for something like this to hit, it wouldn't be now," Schroeder said. "Our season just started." ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/02/AR2010060204677.html

and are severely imagination-challenged, it might take a serious hit on the economy to impress upon them the need for more regulation of corporations.

One of the ONLY silver linings to this awful, awful mess.

Betcha Mr. Ed ain't driving one whit less, though.....