Huge Skimmer Enters Gulf to Clean Up BP Oil Spill, but Not Deployed

The massive skimmer is named "A Whale" and everyone watching the BP Oil Spill catastrophe unfold is hoping "A Whale" can help mitigate some of the oil that continues to gush up from the ocean floor near what once was the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform. Hurricane Alex has also made the oil spill a little worse in areas. All this, as the BP Oil Spill claims a new title: largest ever oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Surpassing Another Milestone:
The oil that has been gushing for more than two months on the ocean floor totals more than 140 million gallons. A sickening figure made even more depressing by the fact that the oil continues to flow, unabated. The Associated Press reports that BP will likely be fined per spilt gallon... making it "crucial to track" how many gallons of oil are spilling in to the Gulf of Mexico each day.

Hurricane Alex:
For all the hyperbole surrounding meek Hurricane Alex and it's possible effect of the BP Oil Spill clean-up, it turns out the storm did do some minor damage to the clean-up cause. Reuters reports wind hampered efforts to get that cap back onto the gushing oil pipeline to mitigate some of the continuing catastrophe. "The bad weather also threatened to push more oil-polluted water onto the U.S. Gulf Coast shore and forced the halt of skimming, spraying of dispersant chemicals and controlled burns of oil on the ocean surface." Discover Magazine blogs: "While mild by hurricane standards, (Hurricane Alex's arrival) meant that only the largest ships, like those doing the relief well drilling and oil capturing, could stay out at sea."

Now that Alex is gone, you would think BP clean-up operations could get back to work with no delays right? Not so fast.

A Whale of a Mess:
Enter: A Whale, the world's largest oil skimming ship. Straight from Asian waters, the huge oil skimmer is seen as hope for many who want to try to prevent any more oil from washing up on the Gulf shoreline. But A Whale isn't in action yet. It's being held up by "the bureaucratic morass of BP". At issue are the costs of deploying the giant oil skimmer, and an EPA regulation that prohibits ships from discharging "foul" or polluted water. Of course, if the water coming out of the skimmer is less polluted than the water that went into it, you would think the EPA could look past that silly little rule. But BP is in full CYA-mode and not eager to make anymore costly mistakes ... even if they could be saving the lives and livelihoods of the people and creatures who depend on a clean Gulf of Mexico for their very existence.

Even if A Whale gets up and running soon, the long-term damages are already starting to mount. Concerns about the health of swimmers,oil clean-up workers and the seafood industry are sure to continue for years to come.