Tar Balls Begin Washing Up on Shores of Pensacola Beach Florida

Officials' worst fears were realized Friday when residents along Florida's Panhandle coast woke up to the site of tar balls littered across 30 miles of Pensacola Beach and beyond.

The brown and orange colored tar balls started washing ashore before dawn Friday along one of Florida's most popular tourist destinations. BP would not comment on the tar balls along Pensacola Beach, or the oil slick still located 8 miles from the shore of Florida.

The development comes as more and more grim pictures are released from the devastation along the Louisiana coast line from the Gulf oil spill that started April 20th when the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded killing 11 people and spilling thousands of gallons of oil in to the Gulf at a rate of 5,000 barrels an hour.

The state of Florida has already requested $150,000 to aid in the cleanup efforts along the Gulf of Mexico. The state plans to use the money to buy a tractor to remove oily sand on the beaches and build net barriers just off the beaches so tourists can continue to swim in the Gulf waters. BP has still not responded to the request for the funds.

Cleanup teams are currently scouring 18 miles of beaches along all of Escambia County to the Alabama border.

Locals and tourists poked at the gobs, took pictures and attempted to clean up the mess along Pensacola Beach. Although beaches in the area have remained open, few attempted to go into the water after lifeguards warned tourists they may encounter oil.

Officials fear that by Saturday or Sunday they may have an ecological disaster on their hands, the type of which Louisiana is currently dealing with.

Officials are also warning locals and tourists not to touch the tar balls or attempt to clean them up. Instead they encourage them to call local officials or report them to area lifeguards. Cleanup teams are currently busy in areas with large areas of the oily balls and may not respond immediately.

If you step on the balls officials say you should attempt to carefully remove them with sand and try to avoid touching them with your hands. Immediately wash you feet, hands or any other body part that comes in contact with tar balls or oil.

Mississippi and Alabama are also already seeing tar balls wash ashore along the Gulf Coast region and their cleanup crews are currently busy trying to stop the speard of the balls and save wildlife in the ocean and birds covered in oil.

The spill is coming at a bad time for the Florida Panhandle. The area has over 200 miles of white beaches and counts on the millions of tourists that vacation there in the summer and the $6 billion tourists spend between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Florida Governor Charlie Crist has already requested BP reimburse the state for any lost tourist revenue.

Local residents are organizing groups to volunteer to clean up the tar balls in an effort to save the beaches along the Gulf Coast. Deepwater Horizon Response suggests going to their website to find volunteer opportunities if you want to help clean the beaches in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

Officials are also monitoring the oil spill in the Gulf to make sure it does not travel around southern Florida and Key West and start to wash ashore along Florida's East Coast Atlantic region.