Maybe a Florida DUer can help me.....

I'm in Destin for the weekend and right now I'm looking outside at the beach. Some brownish-orange substance is floating on the water at about 100 yards out. There's a long chain of it running parallel to the beach. The waves coming in are green and very clear as always and there doesn't seem to be anything washing up on the beach. I'm just wondering if it's oil. Anyone have an idea?

http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/long-ribbons-of-orange-brown-oil-4-miles-off-tampa-bay-coast-smelled-like-oil-felt-like-oil-couldnt-get-it-off-hands-photos

"Traces of oil off Pinellas beaches? Samples taken, Bay News 9 Tampa Bay, June 14, 2010:

Two men spotted what they think could be oil from the BP disaster off a Pinellas County beach while returning home from a fishing trip Sunday morning… four to five miles off Pass-a-Grille beach when they spotted what they believed was an oil sheen on the water. …

“We saw this ribbon of orange brown material,” Mokotoff said. “Steve initially thought it might be discharge from somebody’s boat, but then when we got closer it was so long, even though it wasn’t wide we thought about the oil spill and decided to take a closer look at it.”…

“It smelled like oil… and, unfortunately, it felt like oil,” Weiss said. “We touched it; you couldn’t get it off your hands.”

That's a real shame if it is oil. These are some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Hope I'm wrong.:(

Freshwater runoff from the streams. I wouldn't worry about it, the beaches are clean.

Boats leave residue in the water too.

Unfortunately you have to do a search for the research, since our govt has declared it safe.

So I totally disagree with your post.

I have lots of friends in the Destin charter boat business. They'd have alerted people and, so far, all is quiet.

but she was just guessing. I live in Biloxi and we have barrier islands off our coast, too, but we never see anything like this -- probably because our water is so murky. I sure hope that's all it is.

Nothing to worry about.