WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN? IN THE WORDS OF WINSTON CHURCHILL,, "WE SHALL FIGHT THEM ON THE BEACHES"

1993 TAMPA BAY OIL SPILL


SANTA BARBARA OIL SPILL


Here's what Florida's Division of Emergency Management reports on the 1993 Tampa Bay oil spill:

Environmental Disaster Impacts Other Industries, too!

On the morning of August 10th, 1993, Tampa Bay residents awoke to thick bellowing smoke coming from the water near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over the bay. Two ships had collided at sea and 350,000 gallons of fuel oil had caught fire and were leaking into the pristine waters of Tampa Bay and out into the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil spill clean up While emergency responders concentrated on dowsing the fire and containing the oil spill, other groups worked feverishly to protect the areas diverse wildlife. Success stories abound with the return of over 85% of the affected animals back to their native habitat.

Unfortunately, the real victims of the accident were the Tampa Bay areas fishing and tourist industries. Negative media coverage and long-term clean up operations resulted in a 50% drop in bookings and a 2-year dip in tourism business to the Tampa Bay area. Local hotels, inns, restaurants, gift & souvenir shops, and other tourism-related businesses suffered for several years. Other local businesses were also impacted by the drop in local spending and a cascade of cancelled orders and reduced economic spending. Commercial fishing revenues dropped by 80% and 5,000 sport fishermen ended up losing their boats.

What started as a transportation accident, quickly became an environmental hazard with long-term economic impacts that affected entire industries that were unrelated to those two petroleum tankers.

Imagine how an oil spill would affect St. Augustine, our fishing, our tourists and our economy.