Swimmers defy orders in Florida as workers comb shore for tar balls

From the Bellingham Herald: Swimmers defy orders in Florida as workers comb shore for tar balls
PENSACOLA, Fla. Defiant swimmers took a dunk in the waters off tar-ball-spotted Perdido Key on Wednesday, a day after Escambia County health officials warned swimmers to keep away from the site where the Deepwater Horizon's weathered oil continues to wash ashore.

"Nothing was going to keep him out of the water," said tourist Kerry King, eyeing her husband Al's morning swim at Perdido Key State Park, where dozens of BP workers were combing the shore for tar balls.

The couple had driven 40 minutes from Daphne, Ala., to inspect first-hand conditions on what the Kings called their favorite beach. They drove past "Health Advisory" signs on public access points to Perdido Key warning swimmers to "avoid contact with the water" and "avoid contact with dead or dying fish or other wildlife."

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Wednesday was Day 51 of the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico and the national incident commander, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, reported that the oil spill containment operation in the Gulf of Mexico was catching up to 630,000 gallons a day.

"We continue to make progress," said Allen, predicting that amount could nearly double by next week.

Later in the day, Allen met top BP claims officials at the National Pollution Funds Center to assert the administration's oversight of BP's claims process in order to ensure that every legitimate claim is honored and paid in an efficient manner.

Allen sought "more detail and openness" from BP on how its claims process works, and how quickly claims are being processed for both individuals and businesses suffering setbacks from the oil spill.

BP has estimated that it will have paid out $84 million in those kinds of claims by the end of June.

In Miami, Gov. Charlie Crist visited the future home of a huge hub to coordinate the federal response to oil edging toward the Sunshine State in earnest.

"As it stands right now there doesn't appear to be any imminent threat, if you will, to South Florida, to the Florida Straits, and that's the good news," Crist said.

"But this is ever changing and ever evolving and we've never experienced anything like this - none of us have. This is an unprecedented environmental catastrophe and I think the teamwork that's being employed is essential."

Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Matt Moorlag said a sentry system at work in the loop currents should give South Floridians a 48-hour warning before weathered oil turns up on Miami beaches.

In other developments:

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services set up a seafood toll-free hot line - 1-800-357-4273. Callers can get current information about the status of Florida's open and closed fishing harvest areas, the availability of seafood varieties and general pricing information.

The state held its first meeting of the Gulf Oil Spill Economic Recovery Task Force in Tallahassee on Wednesday. The 28-member panel includes government officials and private citizens, meeting to help Florida businesses suffering from the financial fallout of the Gulf of Mexico spill.

BP executive Doug Suttles issued a denial that his company had gagged cleanup workers, saying they were free to discuss their experiences and opinions, not BP business, as they searched Gulf coast beaches for damage from his firm's spill.

But in one stretch of an eastern Pensacola beach, workers in T-shirts and matching florescent vests steadfastly said they were forbidden to speak to the media as they scooped up bits of seaweed and trash with small plastic shovels.

The workers' headquarters was a pop-up tent, not far from a picturesque scene of white sandcastles and sunbathers wading in the surf.

There were no signs of the weathered oil damage and Tania Ganauser, 38, visiting from Victoria, Texas, with her family said they were on the fifth day of a vacation that would ultimately take them to The Florida Keys.

"We're not concerned about going in the water now," she said, adding that "every day we come out to see how it looks."

In the weeks leading to their vacation they were worried about what conditions they might find but so far "they're so tiny, we've seen them but they are more like little flecks," she said speaking of some tar balls.

Husband Erik said he had concerns about the environmental impact overall of the huge spewing spill. "I've been SCUBA diving for a long time in The Keys," he said. "This could really affect the reefs."

(Figueroa and Lebovich reported from Pensacola; Rosenberg and Susan Degnan Miller contributed to this report from Miami.)

[One hopes that the idiots who are swimming in the water despite orders not to, will come down with some deadly disease, and then NOT be able to sue BP or Florida since they were clearly told the water was hazardous!]