National contribution of Oil Responder boats

[OICUR12]

I am wondering why there are only a few skimmer boats working and of the MSRC boats only The Louisiana Responder and maybe one of the Flordia "Responder" boats are on scene.

Foss has spill response boats and teams all up and down the West Coast and MSRC has boats all up and down the Gulf and East coasts. Why are not all of these boats on scene doing everything they can to catch some of these tar plumes before they reach the marshes and beaches?

Our government should have every professional marine oil spill response team in the country helping to contain and skim this spill.

I have seen footage of the LA responder on scene but near shore all I have seen is some minimum wage temp workers in tyvek suits and john boats putting on a show for the media.

If a national cooridination of these vessels were to take place they could reduce the amount of dispersant they are using to sink the oil to the bottom before it ever reaches shore.

After all these "tar balls" are obviously the by product of a crude oil and dispersant mix.

They are just poisoning future generations by sinking the oil to the sea floor.

[Steamer]

After all these "tar balls" are obviously the by product of a crude oil and dispersant mix.

And what part of that is so obvious?

[Jemplayer]

So we pull every boat and all the resources to the gulf and what happens if there is a spill some were else?

Trying to capture the oil on the open sea is just a waste of time. Anything over 2 knots current, and 3ft seas and your just putting on a show.

[10talents]

You are misinformed. I am on the LAR. We have 10 company boats on site and there must be 2 times that from other companies as well as a dozen shrimp boats. Our 6 GOM boats have been out here since the beginning and the 4 NE boats came down early May. The weather has been very cooperative, seas have been 1-2' for over a month so we have recovered a lot of oil at sea. We cannot skim tar balls nor do we skim dispersant. Today the biggest problem is sea weed. To bring the west coast fleet here would leave that area without a response team and take too long to get them back if something happened out there as already mentioned. This is a huge operation and the public only sees what the media and politicians want to show them. There have been occasions when recon sends some of the boats closer in to the north, farther east or farther west but for the most part we are all working MC252. I have limited internet access so may not be able to respond to further questions at this time.

[Diesel]

Tar balls have been washing upon the Gulf Coast since I can remember.

[skipjackmac]

Last hitch I worked in MC252 and at any one time the radar was full of contacts. On more that 1 watch there were more that 50 vessels in side the 6 mile range of the well site. The majority of them were cleanup vessels. Every time you see air footage on TV you only see the well site and the drill rigs, sub-sea vessels and their support vessels. This might be 10 to 15 vessels. As for tar balls I grew up in a beach community in New Jersey and as a kid I remember cleaning my feet of tar just about every time we went to the beach. That was 45 years ago.

[smetshouse]

You are misinformed. I am on the LAR. We have 10 company boats on site and there must be 2 times that from other companies as well as a dozen shrimp boats. Our 6 GOM boats have been out here since the beginning and the 4 NE boats came down early May. The weather has been very cooperative, seas have been 1-2' for over a month so we have recovered a lot of oil at sea. We cannot skim tar balls nor do we skim dispersant. Today the biggest problem is sea weed. To bring the west coast fleet here would leave that area without a response team and take too long to get them back if something happened out there as already mentioned. This is a huge operation and the public only sees what the media and politicians want to show them. There have been occasions when recon sends some of the boats closer in to the north, farther east or farther west but for the most part we are all working MC252. I have limited internet access so may not be able to respond to further questions at this time.

I am currenty on one of the West coast recovery boats, and there has been talk of bringing one of our boats down there to help, but California has strict guidlines on how much response capability we have to maintain here. It is 22 day trip at the minimum from here and if something happens while we are gone then this region would be in a lot of trouble too....

[smetshouse]

As I write this, two of the Califronia boats are now gearing up to leave Ca for the gulf.

[Tugted]

The Maine Responder & Delaware Responder are down there as well.

[OICUR12]

Tar balls have been washing upon the Gulf Coast since I can remember.

how about what is washing up on the white sand beaches of Florida? That been washin up since you were a kid?

I aint no ol salt yet but i been around the block and I don't remember ever hearing, "Come to the white sand beaches of Florida and enjoy our tar balls".

And now instead of little tar balls and big splotches of emulsified and dispersed heavy crudes it is the lighter black stuff that is really putting the finishing touches on things for the next few years.

Now the next major storm will delay further the capping of the spill and spread the oil miles inland with the storm surge.

Wonder if they will still call it the "Milion Dollar Mile" down in Ft Walton Beach after that.

[OICUR12]

So we pull every boat and all the resources to the gulf and what happens if there is a spill some were else?

Trying to capture the oil on the open sea is just a waste of time. Anything over 2 knots current, and 3ft seas and your just putting on a show.

I am not saying every spill response boat. Leave skeleton response teams and if there is a major spill redeploy anyone needed from the gulf back to their home turf to assist the teams left behind.

My point is that both coasts can make a contribution to the effort if they are actually doing some good. It is a national crisis and it deserves a national response.

My home state sends fire fighters every year to California to fight fires and we are 2000 miles away.

We sent all kinds of aid to foriegn disasters.

We want to keep foreign flagged oil skimmers out of the gulf we better get off our butts and show what these boats that sit idle most of the time can do.

[OICUR12]

As for tar balls I grew up in a beach community in New Jersey and as a kid I remember cleaning my feet of tar just about every time we went to the beach. That was 45 years ago.

I feel sorry for you. I would not swim in water or walk bare foot in the sand if I had to deal with tar balls.

My memories of childhood and the sea are of catching a clean wave on my longboard and riding it to the pristine beach. Taking nothing but a free ride on a wave and leaving nothing behind.

[anchorman]

how about what is washing up on the white sand beaches of Florida? That been washin up since you were a kid?

I aint no ol salt yet but i been around the block and I don't remember ever hearing, "Come to the white sand beaches of Florida and enjoy our tar balls".

And now instead of little tar balls and big splotches of emulsified and dispersed heavy crudes it is the lighter black stuff that is really putting the finishing touches on things for the next few years.

Now the next major storm will delay further the capping of the spill and spread the oil miles inland with the storm surge.

Wonder if they will still call it the "Milion Dollar Mile" down in Ft Walton Beach after that.

What Diesel said is a fact. He did not say to this extent.

[Jeffrox]

Fort Walton BEACH is my home town; I started going to sea on the boats from Destin at age 14. I spent lots a time at the beaches and in the water and I do not recall any tarballs at all. Others reporting that tarballs are the norm up in New Jersey doesn't surprise me though, and I saw plenty of the same in California but I never saw it on the Miricle Strip. It's sad to even think about it.

[Jdiz]

A bit of a bump but how far off the thread poster was I felt it was needed.

I am currently working on the Maine Responder. As someone mentioned. There are 10 Responder boats down here. The Gulf Coast, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Southern, Florida, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, and the Maine. As said there are countless other boats down here working both the spill site and closer to shore. In reality, putting anymore boats out here by the candlestick would be dangerous. It's hard enough already to get a clear working channel to work on.

To send all the west coast boats would leave it very vulnerable to a disaster without any response. Hence why they are positioned there to begin with. Leaving New York harbor unprotected and Portland Maine which is one of the largest oil ports on the east coast unprotected is bad enough.

[smetshouse]

The California Responder and the Pacific Responder are on station now. I just got off the Pacific after taking her around from San Francisco to the gulf. The trip took 19 days with one stop in San Diego for supplies.

[10talents]

We are all (12) in the river tonight awaiting WX.

[OICUR12]

We are all (12) in the river tonight awaiting WX.

is that what you guys are waiting for? I seen a few of ya tied up at your dock and in venice. and today is the 27th of July.
I heard that most of the surface oil is cleaned up.

is this true? is there really that much work left for you guys to do? I mean on that large of a scale that is?

I guess i am glad to see that msrc was called out to respond on a national crisis level but now that the pacific fleet is there, are they even needed? Not that the response isn't appreciated but isn't it kind of "a day late...."

the well is capped (kinda) and I have not seen any media coverage of large recoverable slicks at or around the site.

unfortunately we only see what CNN wants us to see. But if there was some dramatic oil recovery going on right now wouldn't there be some media coverage of some kind?

I know world media pretty much went back to business as usual with the anticlimatic capping of the well but from what i have seen with my own eyes BP is paying for a whole lot of stby time.
I am thinking this is going to come to an end and so will the claims paid out.

Now that the dispersed oil is below the water line and settling to the sea floor it is like it never happened to most people in the rest of the nation.

i think the bp money train is getting ready to come to the end of its tracks.

I think US citizens affected by the disaster will get a better shake from the Brits than they got from an almost forgotten little US company called Exxon.

The Brits know they owe us big time for WWII and they know they have a large vested intrest on foreign soil such as ours. They are doing the best damage control they can but at some point, especially now that the media coverage is dying down and we are getting into the finger pointing sessions, they are gonna bail.