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GidgetBeach FanaticBlue Mtn Beach!!2,452 postsJoined View profileMessageBeach FanaticI don't know about you guys, but, after standing on the beach yesterday, and seeing these great pictures today, I am feeling very proud to be a part of this wonderful community...:wub: Let's keep this feeling alive.
Hundreds of people clasped hands along the beach Saturday to show their opposition to proposed offshore oil drilling. Protesters queued up behind Bud & Alley’s Restaurant about noon to form a chain for 10 minutes. It stretched several properties to the east and west in front of the sparkling surf.
Although hundreds gathered on beaches across the state Saturday, the only sign protesters left of their presence was footprints in the sand. Chains of hand-holding Floridians stretched across shorelines from Pensacola to Key West to show solidarity in their opposition of offshore oil drilling.
More than 100 people created an actual and metaphorical line in the sand at James Lee Park in Destin to protest drilling off the Florida coast on Saturday.
ST. PETE BEACH — Bob Ullmark didn't have any trouble explaining why he came to the beach on a chilly, windy Saturday.
"We don't want any nasty oil in the water," said Ullmark, 53, of St. Petersburg.
Neither did U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores: "We're not going to stand here and allow drilling right off these beautiful beaches."
Hundreds lined Pinellas County's beaches and many more came to more than 70 coastal locations around Florida to protest the idea of drilling close to the state's shoreline. They dressed in black, the color of an oil spill, and held hands in a long lines running down several beaches, including Clearwater Beach, Treasure Island and Indian Rocks Beach.
Dressed in black, some 200 people stood hand in hand on South Beach on Saturday afternoon, raising and lowering their arms as surfers behind them rode the waves.
The activists wanted to make a wave or two of their own, hoping their message against oil drilling would crest upon leaders in Tallahassee.
The 10-minute display of solidarity, known as Hands Across the Sand, was replicated on other beaches along the state's east and west coasts.
The protest will be one of many demonstrations as oil drilling resurges as an issue locally and nationally, said Michael Laas, a spokesman for the Miami chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. The nonprofit was one of a slew of environmental organizations ashore for the event.
In Key West, more than 400 people formed a human sign on Smathers Beach. The people made a circle and inside it spelled out DRILL, with a line through the word.
Scores of people lined up on the shoreline in Jacksonville Beach on Saturday afternoon and held hands for 10 minutes as they looked out at the ocean.
As part of a statewide initiative called "Hands Across the Sand," they joined thousands who planned to hold hands up and down Florida's beaches at 1:30 p.m. to protest the possibility of oil drilling off the state's coasts.
The Jacksonville Beach event, which met at the foot of Beach Boulevard, was organized by the Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol. And as suggested on the project's Web site, www.handsacrossthesand.org, participants began gathering on the beach at 1 p.m.
"It's been in the news that the Legislature wants to allow offshore drilling, but we are a fragile ecological state," said Valerie Pickett of Atlantic Beach, who arrived with her daughter Dawson, 17, and neighbor Diana Froehlich, 18.
"We don't need to have the issue of possible oil spills or contamination of our waters," she said.
John Rneeds to get out moreConflictinator6,782 postsJoined View profileMessageneeds to get out more
The man on the stage says it's time, and Ian, who is 8, is ready. "Yes!" he yells, and makes a break for the sand.
Ian is at Lake Worth Beach with the rest of them — a few hundred in all — for the protest. They are wearing black — the color of oil — and will line up on the sand and hold hands to let everyone know what they think of drilling off of Florida's coast. (Answer: Not much.)
Still, the legislature mulled the idea last year, and is expected to do so again. In response, activists held a protest at 80 beaches throughout the state — right then, 1 p.m. Saturday, called "Hands Across the Sand."
AllifunnFunnChef - AlisonCooks.comSt Petersburg13,635 postsJoined View profileMessageFunnChef - AlisonCooks.com
JdargSoWal Expert18,040 postsJoined View profileMessageSoWal ExpertGidget...
GREAT PICTURES!!!
WOW!!!:clap::clap:
Hey, I'm fired up to pizz off a buncha oily Texans, anyone else with me?!!
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