"World's Whitest Beaches." So reads the sign, topped with a leaping Marlin, that greets motorists along US Highway 98 as they drive into Pensacola Beach in northwest Florida.

A dead sea turtle is collected on the beach by a worker from the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Mississippi May 4, 2010 before an oil spill is expected to hit the beaches in the next few days. [Agencies]

But local business owners in this tourist mecca fear the promise may soon turn as black as the spreading tide of oil already staining the blue Gulf of Mexico.

BP Plc officials and emergency responders from five states are grappling with a huge oil spill from a ruptured BP-owned Gulf well threatening fishing and tourism centers from Louisiana to Florida.

In Pensacola, the mood is increasingly pensive, skeptical and angry.

Cancellations are flowing into hotels, motels and time shares. And charter boat captains are worried about their livelihoods since they normally look to summer for sun-seeking tourists after the busy spring break season.

Long touted for its blinding "white sugar" sand, the economy of Pensacola and the surrounding Panhandle region is based almost solely on the quality of its beaches and the turquoise blue water that ebbs and flows onto its shores.

"I make my living off the water," said John Rivers, a charter boat captain from Gulf Breeze. "If there are no fish or you can't eat them, I'm out of business."

Officials for BP have spent the last few days meeting with community groups trying to assure them the company will make good on promises to reimburse them for any lost income.

"As a former Floridian, I know how the beaches are part of your lives, your community and your businesses," BP spokesperson Liz Castro told a group of more than 400 people who crammed into a Pensacola Beach church to hear from government and company officials on Monday.

"BP is responsible for this and we will be here to see this through," Castro said.

But business owners are skeptical about the company's pledge to offer quick claim payments without requiring owners to sign waivers on future damage.

While big-pocket chains can withstand a summer without tourists, small operators who make up a larger portion of the business community do not have that luxury.