Folks who know Tampa Bay area beaches, such as Lido Beach, know they remain unspoiled by oil, except for the devastating impact on the local economy.
"Our small business owners here, our jobs here are in jeopardy," says Raj Doraisamy, co-creator of crystalclearflorida.com.
Doraisamy and friend Gary Nogard decided to launch the Internet effort after a dinner conversation a few weeks ago. That's when Doraisamy said Nogard "mentioned that he has a client on Siesta Key that has 80 pages of cancellations."
Doraisamy said he heard of a florist who handles about a dozen weddings in June, but whose summer beach event calendar has zero entries.
So the two decided to do something. And that something was crystalclearflorida.com, along with a Facebook page.
Each week they plan to fly along the coast 30 to 50 miles offshore, and stream the video online.
"Anyone can click on the website and actually see what the plane saw in real time," Doraisamy said. Their first flight was Monday.
"We're going to go out, turn the camera on so people worldwide know where the oil is and where the oil isn't," he said.
In the past 24 hours, the site has had 16,000 hits, and reader comments.
"I almost canceled my family's vacation to Siesta," wrote Derek of Evansville, Ind. He decided not to cancel because the website's video showed him how clear the water is.
Doraisamy wants others, such as fishermen, to take pictures and post them on the website.
"And if all you do is click on the page or Facebook and send this to your friends and they send it to other friends, then someone who may have been planning on canceling a trip here may see it and may change their mind," he said.
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