An op-ed from St. Petersburg resident Hunter Miller, Oceana’s Florida Gulf Coast Campaign Organizer
Florida enjoyed a win on election day with an overwhelming vote to pass Amendment 9, which bans offshore drilling and exploration in state waters. While we cheer this victory for our coasts and oceans, we know that this fight is not over. The amendment stops drilling within nine nautical miles of Tampa Bay, but that’s not far enough. The BP Deepwater Horizon rig blew up more than 85 nautical miles from towns in Florida’s panhandle that saw oil. We need more than nine miles and must defend the entire Gulf moratorium. Drilling is already too close, we can’t let it get an inch closer — Tampa Bay is too precious for that. Like so many others, I often paddle out into Tampa Bay to relax and occasionally get lucky enough to catch a nice redfish or snook. Recently after a beautiful morning paddle, I was reminded that my days fishing these waters could be numbered. If out-of-state politicians and President Trump are successful, offshore drilling could come even closer to Tampa Bay, regardless of our attempts to stop it at the state level.
My family has called Florida home for six generations for the same reasons that millions of other Americans live here now: an unparalleled quality of life and an abundance of wildlife and beauty. I feel lucky to live, work and raise a family in St. Petersburg where I’m surrounded by vibrant ocean ecosystems and a beautiful coast. I’ve dedicated my life to protecting these coastal resources because I want to keep fishing in the Gulf for years to come and I want my children to play on clean, sandy shores.
In 2010, BP’s exploratory rig Deepwater Horizon exploded and gushed more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf. An estimated 10 million user-days of beach, fishing and boating activity were lost. Interest in Gulf vacations generally declined after the spill and visitors ended up taking their beach vacations elsewhere. Florida hotels in places that never saw oil still felt the impacts, experiencing cancellations and trouble with future bookings. Oil didn’t hit Tampa Bay beaches, but a drop in tourism did. Just ask business owners in Madeira Beach or Pass-a-Grille, Clearwater or Anna Maria.
Widespread, bipartisan opposition to dirty and dangerous offshore drilling remains strong in Florida and the passage of Amendment 9 makes that clear once again. But Amendment 9 alone is not enough to protect Florida’s coast from offshore drilling. Drilling in federal waters — including the eastern Gulf of Mexico moratorium — is still up for grabs in the Trump administration’s federal offshore drilling plan. The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded 41 miles off Louisiana, yet Florida still felt the direct impacts all along our Gulf Coast. If drilling comes any closer — even in federal waters — the inevitable spill could be even more damaging to our marine ecosystems and spectacular Tampa Bay beaches. We’re relying on elected leaders in Washington to protect Floridians from the increased risk of a spill and to defend the eastern Gulf of Mexico moratorium, which has provided more than a decade of protection from new offshore drilling.
On Florida’s Gulf Coast, healthy, oil-free waters support more than 304,000 jobs and produce more than $17.5 billion in GDP through the tourism, recreation and fishing sectors. Bringing dirty and dangerous offshore oil drilling an inch closer to our beaches puts stress on our economy and livelihoods precisely because so many Gulf Coast jobs depend on healthy ocean ecosystems. And we’ve seen what oil drilling does to the natural environment. Expanding offshore drilling off our coast, even one inch closer, is a remarkably terrible and ill-conceived idea. It would threaten the culture and livelihood of coastal communities throughout Florida.
Our economy is intimately tied to a clean and healthy Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay and has thrived for decades in part because our waters are protected from offshore drilling. We cannot let this change. More drilling means more spilling. Amendment 9 is a step in the right direction, but it’s not the end of our fight to protect our coast. Our new governor, Ron DeSantis, opposes offshore drilling and now more than ever, we need all of Florida’s elected officials to remain united and stand with us — their constituents — to defend Florida’s ban on drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
The Florida that I’m proud to call home is not an oil state and we are counting on our leaders to protect Florida: offshore drilling cannot get one inch closer. Plus, the fishing is just way too good to let dirty and dangerous drilling ruin it for the rest of us.
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This article appears in Feb 7-14, 2019.