Keeping tourism afloat is crucial for Galveston, which is still recovering from the devastating impact of Hurricane Ike in 2008. In the aftermath, 10,000 of the city’s 60,000 residents permanently fled. Many who stayed are still awaiting federal money to rebuild. Tourist shops offer books documenting “The Storm” and businesses have signs pointing to the high-water mark. Some reopened barely a year ago.

Image A souvenir from the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig and Museum in Galveston. Credit... Jake Guevara/The New York Times

“This is not what I needed this summer,” said Cheryl Jenkines, the manager of her family’s antiques and accessories shop, Hendley Market, a downtown fixture for 30 years. She began to cry. After Ike, she explained, her store was flooded with 10 feet of water; she was knee-deep in mud during the cleanup. The store reopened in May 2009, but only for three days a week and at a third of its original size.

Coupled with the economic slump, Ms. Jenkines, 51, worried that any negative attention from the oil spill would torpedo her business. “There are a lot of sleepless nights,” she said.

Some are hoping to get BP to help ease the financial strain.

Katie’s Seafood Market is a sliver of a shop that sits dockside in the shadow of the oil rig museum. Three of its boats are still working the gulf, 150 miles out, picking up fillings for the fish tacos in Galveston’s cafes and red snapper to supply the East Coast.

But Keith Guindon, the owner of Katie’s Seafood Market and treasurer of a trade group, the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance, said he was preparing to file a claim with BP for lost income. “I’d be foolish not to be nervous,” Mr. Guindon, 54, said. “Just the perception can really hurt things now.”

Last week, a representative from BP came to the Galveston City Council meeting. “He seemed like a credible fellow,” Mayor Jaworski said. “He came right up and listened to us and said he would help us pay for public relations.” A spokeswoman for BP said no deal had been reached yet.