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When the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20 in the Gulf of Mexico, 11 people were killed — and oil has been leaking into the gulf since then. Now, tourism officials from Mississippi to Florida are hoping that the oil slick doesn’t come ashore on their beaches. Meanwhile, tourism officials here are trying to gently guide tourists in our direction.
The oil spill has also raised questions about the shrimping and oyster industries in the Lowcountry and the prospects of offshore drilling in the waters off South Carolina.
Impact on tourism
On a recent afternoon, all of the employees of Goode Vacation Rentals on Hilton Head Island were tied up, so owner Brian Good answered the ringing phone. The man on the other end was from Atlanta and had planned to vacation with his family in Destin, Fla., until concerns about the oil spill changed his mind.
“We’re getting quite a few of these calls,” said Goode, who rents out 140 beach homes and villas. “You hate to benefit from someone else’s misfortune, but somebody is going to do it and it might as well be us.”
The Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce has bolstered its brand awareness campaign, setting its sights on Internet users in Knoxville, Tenn., and Birmingham, Ala., two markets with substantial numbers of affluent households who might be looking for an alternative venue for summer fun, according to chamber spokeswoman Charlie Clark. The ads don’t mention the oil spill.
While nobody is telling folks who had planned to vacation on the Gulf Coast not to go, it is understandable that people are getting nervous, especially given the fact that millions of gallons of oil have been spewing from the damaged well for more than a month. The white-sandy beaches there might still be beautiful, but then again, they might soon be covered in thick tar.
“For many travelers, this is your once-a-year, hard-earned vacation,” Clark said. “The Gulf Coast and the Southeast coast draw from a lot of the same markets. We’re just putting ourselves out there to let people know we’re here and we are an option if people’s plans change.”
The campaign has ruffled some feathers. Alabama tourism officials almost immediately cried foul. The Mobile Press-Register likened the campaign to buzzards circling overhead in a May 19 editorial.
In truth, Hilton Head’s advertising campaign — which costs about $50,000 — is far less than the Gulf Coast has at its disposal. BP committed $70 million to the states for tourism marketing.
“We know this is a difficult time and we wouldn’t wish this on anybody,” Clark said of the Gulf’s plight.
The local seafood industry
About a month after the rig exploded and sent a steady stream of oil and natural gas into the Gulf, fishing and shrimping were restricted from roughly 20 percent of the fertile grounds in the Gulf of Mexico. Approximately 40 percent of the seafood harvested in the continental United States comes from the Gulf.
What could that mean for local fishermen and shrimpers?
First, federal laws limit how much seafood they can bring in from our waters. So, simple economics of supply and demand would suggest that the price of locally-caught seafood is bound to rise, especially if the pipe a mile beneath the surface continues to spew large amounts of thick oil. But it remains premature to determine what the long-term consequences will be, experts say.
The price of local, wild-caught shrimp and other seafood has risen slightly since the oil spill began closing off large swaths of the Gulf of Mexico, according to Clay Cable of the S.C. Shrimper’s Association. For instance, the price of Gulf shrimp has gone up in some places on the Gulf coast by 50 cents a pound as of May 20. In the meantime, “we’re hoping that the oil doesn’t come around toward us,” said Cable, an 84-year-old former Isle of Palms shrimper who is active in a number of South Carolina seafood trade associations. “I don’t think it’s going to be able to make it through the Florida Keys and into the Gulf Stream.”
Offshore drilling
In March, President Obama lifted a ban on offshore drilling along the East Coast. Last year, the South Carolina legislature voted to allow offshore drilling, but has yet to finalize the mechanism for approving drilling plans. Both of South Carolina’s U.S. senators, Lindsay Graham and Jim DeMint, still publicly support offshore drilling. The federal energy bill unveiled last month contains an opt-out clause, which means states could decline to open their waters to the drilling industry. All four Republican candidates for governor — Gresham Barrett, Andre Bauer, Nikki Haley and Henry McMaster — still support drilling, as does state Sen. Robert Ford, one of the three Democratic candidates.
Several companies are asking the federal government to conduct seismic blasts off our coast to survey potential oil fields, but it remains unclear whether those areas would be profitable without advances in technology.
In reaction to the BP oil spill, President Obama has placed a moratorium on new drilling.
