The oil spill that has already fouled San Francisco Bay and delayed the Dungeness crab season is raising fears that visitors will be reluctant to dine in the city's famed seafood restaurants.
"It's not going to be a pretty picture. It's definitely going to hurt," said Anthony Geraldi, co-owner of Fisherman's Grotto, adding that seafood sales are the one bright spot during the normally slow fall tourism season.
Several beaches remained closed yesterday, nearly a week after a cargo ship struck the Bay Bridge, releasing 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel in the bay's biggest oil spill in nearly two decades.
The sea lions at the city's world-famous Fisherman's Wharf have largely avoided exposure to the oil, and the stench of fuel that had hung over the bay dissipated by yesterday. But dark, patchy slicks continue to float in some areas, and several beaches remained closed as teams in yellow hazardous-materials suits shoved sticky globs of oil and sand into plastic bags.
Sue Kelvington's visit to Ocean Beach turned messy when some of the children in her group went swimming and emerged with oil stains on their skin.
"They'd never seen the ocean," said Kelvington, who was visiting from Salt Lake City with her daughter and some cousins. Explaining why they ignored warnings to stay out of the ocean, she said her relatives "were going to have fun anyway."
Over the weekend, the spill forced organizers of the San Francisco Triathlon to cancel the swimming portion of the competition. Dozens of the 900 athletes were hoping to gain points to qualify for the Olympic Games.