By the Palm Beach Post
PENSACOLA — Danger lurks in the waves, but town officials won't close the beaches. They don't want to scare off tourists - or their money - in high season. As in fictional Amity Island, Florida officials find themselves in the jaws of a dilemma. Here the danger isn't a killer shark. It's a greasy, toxic mess leaching onto Panhandle beaches and inland waterways from an underwater oil volcano 300 miles away.
But the official response begs comparison. With tar balls on beaches, "mousse mats" floating in the passes and oil staining pristine sands, state and local officials aren't leaping to shut anything down. Instead, they're spending tens of millions of dollars on ads, waiving fees to encourage sport fishing and making desperate pleas for people to come to the Sunshine State, eat the seafood and support communities now teetering on ecological and economic disaster.
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