Oil spill not expected to impact Florida's west coast

The chances remain low of a major impact on the west coast of Florida from the giant oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico.

That was the word this morning during an emergency meeting of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

More than 100 people packed a conference room at the TradeWinds Island Resorts to hear the latest on the situation.

''The likelihood remains low that we will be impacted," said Capt. Tim Close of the Coast Guard in St. Petersburg. "The threat remains fairly low on the west coast of Florida."

That means that people should to continue to enjoy the state's outdoors.

"Come to the beach, stay in the hotels, enjoy our coastline," said Timyn Rice of the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The meeting comes a day after the federal government announced it was increasing the size of the area in the Gulf that is closed to fishing because of the oil clogging the waters. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it had closed nearly 46,000 square miles, or about 19 percent of federal waters.

That is an increase from the 7 percent that had been closed to fishing before Tuesday.

The expanded ban covers an area that starts near the Louisiana coast and moves southeast in a diagonal line. From Mississippi to Pensacola, the ban starts about 30 miles offshore. It begins moving away from shore at the Florida-Alabama border. At its eastern end south of Apalachicola, about the midpoint of the Florida Panhandle, the ban starts about 160 miles offshore.

Ever since the rig off the Louisiana coast collapsed in a fiery heap last month, as many as 200,000 gallons of oil a day has been spewing into Gulf waters. Even though it is thought that the bulk of the oil has remained miles away from Florida's coastline, the negative publicity about the spill and the perception that Florida has been directly impacted has hurt tourism and Florida's economy, state officials have said.