Oil Capped, Get Your Beach Gear Packed!
Regarding the Deepwater Horizon oil spill off the coast of Louisiana: it sure is hard to know what to believe. We suggest that you see for yourself with a real-time view of our beach via our live Beach Cam at Island Grand. If it’s daytime, you’ll see lots of people out having fun on waverunners, swimming in the Gulf, walking along our clean, oil-free beach. We’d love to see you, too!
Current Status
Currently, the oil spill is not affecting the west coast of Florida where we are located in any way. The bulk of the oil continues to be concentrated around the site of the leak off the coast of Louisiana, though the Northwest Florida beaches near Pensacola are currently seeing some impact. The oil remains well offshore from the beaches of St. Pete and Clearwater and we have seen no impact whatsoever on our beaches.
Cancellations
We currently have made no changes in our cancellation policy since we do not anticipate any impact on the beaches in the Tampa Bay area. As always, for a full refund of your deposit, simply cancel at least 48 hours prior to arrival. However, in the unlikely event that your leisure stay is affected by a government-imposed beach closure or warning, we will refund, with no penalty, your first night’s room, tax and resort fee.
From selected news stories:
August 26 – Researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have found that previously undiscovered ocean floor microbes have literally risen to the occasion and begun degrading leftover oil in the Gulf of Mexico. St. Pete Beach’s white sand beaches continue to be oil free and continues to have no threat of oil reaching it’s coast.
August 16 – The procedure to permanently seal BP's crippled well in the Gulf of Mexico is working, with no oil escaping the well since early August. Carol Browner, the White House energy adviser, reported success in containing the oil that leaked from the well, saying that seventy-five percent of the oil has evaporated, burned or been contained.
August 2 – St. Pete Beach continues to have no threat of oil, and our coast remains oil free with beautiful, white sand beaches. The effort to seal the ruptured oil well in the Gulf once and for all is scheduled to begin Monday night. "I do have a lot of confidence we'll be successful," said Doug Suttles, BP COO.
July 19 – U.S. Coast Guard Commander Joe Boudrow, who oversees the spill response in the Panhandle, said aircraft scanning Florida shorelines have confirmed that there are "no oil sightings in Florida as of this morning."
Oil from the broken well no longer looks like it will enter a current in the Gulf that could have sent slicks and tar balls toward the Florida Keys. The so-called loop current has moved farther west and surface sheens of oil are now about 300 miles away from it, Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Sole said.
July 16 – On Thursday, July 15, BP successfully stopped the oil gushing from its ruptured undersea well with a new containment cap.
Work restarted Friday on the drilling of the first of two relief wells, seen as a more permanent way to plug and seal the breached well.
July 7 - Remember our feathery friends that were relocated to Egmont Key in May? They have new neighbors! Wednesday, Florida Fish and Wildlife released 32 brown pelicans at Ft. DeSoto National Park (located less than 10 miles from TradeWinds).
Less than 2 weeks ago, these birds were captured off the Southeast coast of Louisiana—covered in oil and incapable of flying. After days of rehabilitation they were ready to be relocated to a new home, free from the threat of oil. Ft. DeSoto was chosen as the final destination based on “oil trajectory, weather and habitat,” said wildlife veterinarian Jenny Powers. Not only is our coast oil-free, but our protected beaches serve as the ideal location for these beautiful birds to start their second chance at life.
Tampa Bay’s Fox 13 covered the story, click here to view the video.
June 23 - A change in ocean currents has minimized impact risks from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico for the Florida Keys and most of the Florida peninsula, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
NOAA suspended production of its daily maps that tracked the possible trajectory of the oil into the Florida Keys because of a change in the Loop Current, which could have carried oil down Florida’s west coast into the Florida Straits between the Florida Keys and Cuba and up into the Gulf Stream.
Billy Causey, superintendent of the southeast region for NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuaries, said that the northern end of the Loop Current "has been pinched off into a large clockwise eddy. Thus, there is no clear path for spilled oil to enter the Loop Current from the spill source in the northern Gulf of Mexico."
No oil on our beaches
"The big question is, 'do you have oil on your beach?' People on the national and international level view Florida as one destination, and it's tough to get the message across that Florida is broken up into regions -- and those regions are affected very differently," says Keith Overton, Chairman of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, and COO of TradeWinds Island Resorts.
To calm some fear that oil is nearing Pensacola’s coast, Pensacola is 500 miles northwest of St. Pete Beach, very close to the Alabama border.