About 400 people stood at Smathers Beach in Key West to protest oil drilling as part of the February 13 Hands Across the Sand event.
BY CAMMY CLARK AND ROBERT SAMUELS
http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/1479494.html?storylink=omni_popular
rsamuels@MiamiHerald.com
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.
“I don’t believe in drilling at all because it always means spilling,” said Key West artist and taxi driver Angela Byarlay, who posed as Miss December for a Keys environmental calendar.
The protesters dressed in black to evoke the image of oil streaming along the coast.
“Based on oil spills in the past, it can be catastrophic to our beaches, our wildlife and our tourism dollars,” said Laas, whose organization coordinated the event in Miami Beach.
The environmental nonprofit had envisioned enough attendants that could stretch from South Pointe to Fifth Avenue, said Mike Gibaldi, president of Miami’s Surfrider Foundation. But they only got people to First Avenue at best. The weekend’s chilly weather, Gibaldi said, conspired against them.
Among those who attended were 100 students from MAST Academy. Their language arts teacher, Josue Cruz, promised them an extra A to be factored in with their tests about Crime and Punishment and The Great Gatsby if they attended.
“I wanted to make them aware of the cause because they’ve already showed an interest in science and environment,” Cruz said. “They’ll be inheriting these beaches, so it’s important they learn about protecting them.”