"A Whale" - tied down while oil continues to spill

After making a brief stop in Norfolk for refueling, U.S. Coast Guard inspections and an all-out publicity blitz intended to drum up public support, a giant tanker billed as the world’s largest oil skimming vessel set sail Friday for the Gulf of Mexico where it hopes to assist in the oil-cleanup effort.

The Taiwanese-owned, Liberian-flagged ship dubbed the “A Whale” stands 10 stories high, stretches 1,115 feet in length and has a nearly 200-foot beam. It displaces more water than an aircraft carrier. …

But a number of hurdles stand in his way. TMT officials said the company does not yet have government approval to assist in the cleanup or a contract with BP to perform the work.

That’s part of the reason the ship was tied to pier at the Virginia Port Authority’s Norfolk International Terminals Friday morning. TMT and its public-relations agency invited scores of media, elected officials and maritime industry executives to an hour-long presentation about how the ship could provide an immediate boost to clean-up efforts in the Gulf.

TMT also paid to fly in Edward Overton, a professor emeritus of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University, to get a look at the massive skimmer.
Overton blasted BP and the federal government for a lack of effort and coordination in their dual oil-spill response and made a plea to the government to allow the A Whale to join the cleanup operation.

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saywhatkid said:

Just curious; why was something like this made? That is a lot of oil to skim. I cannot fathom a ship with this capacity being built unless there was a profit to be made. It displaces more water than an air craft carrier, and they motored into the port at Norfolk, awaiting approval. And why has nobody heard of this thing until now, day 68?

I see your "little friend" has popped back into the forum. Protect him; he needs your help.

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kokonut said:

No need for protection. I don't go around posting extremely large pictures just to vent. Words are fine just so you know.

As for the ship, the govt must have known about this throughout the Obama administration since I imagine it'd take a few years to get that ship retrofitted. The question now becomes, 1) Did he/they know about the ship? and 2)When did he/they know this? And 3) Why did you wait so far down the road?

This is Day 68 in this continuing saga of foot dragging, lack of coordination, bumbling regulations, ineptitudes, and lack of common sense.

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saywhatkid said:

It was a nice picture. Not much different than thread after thread of polls and charts covering the same subject. I was venting over the lack of moderation and respect on the forums. How many threads have you hijacked into anti-Obama diatribes, when they were unrelated?

You said the gov't MUST HAVE KNOWN...but where was FoxesNews? MSM? I cannot imagine this would slip past their scrutiny for over 2 months. I find it hard to believe. It just become public knowledge now?

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saywhatkid said:

It was a nice picture. Not much different than thread after thread of polls and charts covering the same subject. I was venting over the lack of moderation and respect on the forums. How many threads have you hijacked into anti-Obama diatribes, when they were unrelated?

You said the gov't MUST HAVE KNOWN...but where was FoxesNews? MSM? I cannot imagine this would slip past their scrutiny for over 2 months. I find it hard to believe. It just become public knowledge now?

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kokonut said:

But a number of hurdles stand in his way. TMT officials said the company does not yet have government approval to assist in the cleanup or a contract with BP to perform the work.

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kokonut said:

Then don't read my postings. No one is forcing you to read anything.

Yeah, me the "hijacker of threads." Me? I'd just ignore such things.
Anway, this ship became public knowledge because of the oil spill which is different from having the govt know about this ship "A Whale." I'm sure there are procedures and filings to be done. Somebody had to know somewhere in the fed. govt. It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds and the the continuing delaying and hem-hawing. Maybe this'll be Obama's "oilgate"?

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saywhatkid said:

Aye Aye, Captain. I cower under your watchful eye. It is easy to ignore thread hijacking when you are the one doing it. Maybe if I turned this thread into...an anti-whaling thread, you would understand.

As for the Obama "oilgate" comment, we can count on you to keep his name in the mud; er, I mean spotlight.

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Steinhauer said:

Florida lightning can be terrifying. Those storms just sneak up on you. They need to equip it with some lightning rods.

I just read a detailed report about A-Whale, it is not equipped to seperate oil from water, just collect 500,000 gallons of oily water.

What they need is Kevin Costner's centrifuge on that skimmer, that way they can collect 500,000 gallons of oil.

Just a thought.

If BP is going to use 32 of these centrifuges, they should put them on that skimmer.

I am trying to keep myself updated - here is a website BP made to keep everyone updated:

BP Global | BP

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The ship -- the length of 3 1/2 football fields and 10 stories high -- is designed to collect up to 500,000 barrels of oily water a day through 12 vents on either side of its bow. It docked in Norfolk en route to the Gulf from Portugal, where it was retrofitted to skim the seas. The ship and its crew of 32 were to leave Virginia waters Friday evening.

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The owners of the "A Whale" said the ship features a new skimming approach that has never been attempted on such a large scale. They are anxious to put it to its first test in the Gulf.

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Environmental Protection Agency approval is required because some of the seawater returned to the Gulf would have traces of oil.

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One question, he said, is: "Will a large vessel like this be able to operate this in this kind of area?"

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saywhatkid said:

Aye Aye, Captain. I cower under your watchful eye. It is easy to ignore thread hijacking when you are the one doing it. Maybe if I turned this thread into...an anti-whaling thread, with links to environmentalist websites, charts showing decimated whale populations, etc, you would understand.

As for the Obama "oilgate" comment, we can count on you to keep his name in the mud; er, I mean spotlight.

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Florida boatbuilder who teamed up with singer Jimmy Buffett to manufacture a line of custom flats boats designed to rescue wildlife affected by the Gulf oil spill was part of segment on CNN's AC360 news show with Anderson Cooper Tuesday night.
.....
Castlow said his company is about to launch its second 17-foot Shallow Water Attention Terminal, or SWAT, rescue boat, but scientists at the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory are prohibited from using them to rescue wildlife by BP's Incident Command Center.

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saywhatkid said:

Just curious; why was something like this made? That is a lot of oil to skim. I cannot fathom a ship with this capacity being built unless there was a profit to be made. It displaces more water than an air craft carrier, and they motored into the port at Norfolk, awaiting approval. And why has nobody heard of this thing until now, day 68?

I see your "little friend" has popped back into the forum. Protect him; he needs your help.

Click to expand...

kokonut said:

Then don't read my postings. No one is forcing you to read anything.

Yeah, me the "hijacker of threads." Me? I'd just ignore such things.
Anway, this ship became public knowledge because of the oil spill which is different from having the govt know about this ship "A Whale." I'm sure there are procedures and filings to be done. Somebody had to know somewhere in the fed. govt. It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds and the the continuing delaying and hem-hawing. Maybe this'll be Obama's "oilgate"?

Click to expand...