A journalist who was searching the Florida Gulf Islands National Seashore for signs of oil pollution got a silly reason to go home from federal agents. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service representative told the WEAR ABC 3 Pensacola reporter, who was using a shovel to dig through the sand, that he needed to produce a permit that said he could do so. Soon after, a National Parks Service rep told the reporter the same thing.

The Raw Story reports:

“So, no sand castles?” the reporter asked. “None of that, huh?”

“You’re right,” the office replied.

The reporter was out to prove that BP’s cleanup efforts — which in many instances involved cleaning only the top six inches of sand — were ineffective.

Hey, at least the oily beaches will make it easy for kids to place foreboding moats around their illegal sand castles.

Building sand castles on Florida’s beaches is illegal, feds tell oil-hunting reporter [The Raw Story]
(Thanks, Michael!)

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