You are in the current BP Catastrophe Morning Edition - AUV #409. ROV #408 is here.
The digest of diaries is here.
Please RECOMMEND THIS DIARY, the motherships have been discontinued.
Bookmark this link to find the latest Gulf Watchers diaries.
Please be kind to kossacks with bandwidth issues. Please do not post images or videos. Again, many thanks for this.
PLEASE visit Pam LaPier's diary to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!
Many claimants seeking damages from BP are frustrated by the lack of informationon how to proceed.
Dozens of claimants have told ProPublica they are having trouble getting information about their submissions, and applicants say that the claims agents they speak to on the telephone and in field offices are unable to provide any answers.
Claims czar Kenneth Feinberg acknowledged that his office could do a better job at providing information.
"We have responded to that valid criticism that there’s no way transparency-wise for somebody to get information about their particular claim or calculation," Feinberg said.
About 38,000 claims are currently under review, with about 55,000 claims sent back for more documentation.
Mid-term election noise is drowning out the aftermath of BP's gusher in the Gulf...
After all, BP's battle to rein in its runaway Macondo oil well provided fodder for water-cooler conversation all summer long, and the issue of offshore drilling touches on two very big businesses: coastal tourism and the energy industry.
But the oil spill and offshore drilling have barely been a blip on the political radar during this campaign season. Few candidates are talking about those issues - even in coastal states where what happens in federal waters can play an important role onshore.
Relieved but wary as drill ban is slated to end.
Business had suffered the past six months because of the absence of oil workers and fishermen, though the presence of spill clean-up workers partially offset the slump, she said. Even so, the decision was welcome.
Assessing the direct impact of the moratorium and the closure of Gulf waters on unemployment levels in Mississippi is complicated because its coastal economy is coming out of an economic slump at the same time, said state officials.
And the bills continue to arrive...the seventh one to BP for $62.6 million.
The Obama administration said BP "and other responsible parties" -- Transocean, MOEX and Anadarko -- have paid the first six bills in full, for a total of $518.4 million. Thursday's bill makes a total of $581 million billed to date.
And how tough is it to surprise someone in the middle of the ocean? The US government is planning to conduct surprise inspections of oil rigs.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. offshore drilling agency will begin conducting surprise inspections on oil rigs as part of a new aggressive enforcement effort adopted by the Obama administration since the BP oil spill, the agency's head said on Thursday.
The Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, formerly known as the Minerals Management Service, had stopped performing unannounced rig inspections recently because of concerns about national security.
But the head of the bureau, Michael Bromwich, said he saw no legitimate reason to let oil companies know about planned inspections as much as two days in advance.
"I think unannounced inspections should and must play a significant role in an integrated inspections policy," Bromwich told the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit.
And, last and slightly off-topic - but with the changes to be expected in the ecosystems of the Gulf post-BP, a possible preview of things to come - a new species of fish has been discovered in areas of deep ocean thought to be empty... From the IndependentUK:
A new species has been discovered in a part of the ocean previously thought to be entirely free of fish, scientists said yesterday.
The new type of snailfish was found living at a depth of 7,000m in the Peru-Chile trench of the South East Pacific Ocean.
Mass groupings of cusk-eels and large crustacean scavengers were also discovered living at these depths for the first time, scientists said. The findings, in one of the deepest places on the planet, were made by a team of marine biologists from the University of Aberdeen and experts from Japan and New Zealand.
The team took part in a three-week expedition, during which they used deep-sea imaging technology to take 6,000 pictures at depths between 4,500m and 8,000m within the trench.
And don't forget the Friday Night Gulf Watcher's Block Party this evening...
==== ROV Feeds =====
20876/21507 - Development Driller II's ROV 1
32900/49178 - Development Driller II's ROV 2
41434/41436 - Olympic Challenger's ROV 1
40788/40789 - Olympic Challenger's ROV 2
39168/39169 - Chouest Holiday's ROV 1
40492/40493 - Chouest Holiday's ROV 2
Iron Horse ROV 1
47146/47147 - Development Driller III's ROV 1
43698/43699 - Development Driller III's ROV 2
==Multiple stream feeds (hard on browser/bandwidth)==
BP videos All the available directly feeds from BP.
Bobo's lightweight ROV Multi-feed: is the only additional up to date multiple feed site.
See this thread for more info on using video feeds and on linking to video feeds.
Previous Gulf Watcher diaries:
Gulf Watchers Monday Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #408 - peraspera
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #407 - shanesnana
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #406 - Sunday Wrap - Lorinda Pike
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #405 - bleeding heart
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #404 - peraspera
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #403 - Darryl House
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #402 - Yasuragi
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #401 - Lorinda Pike
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #400 - Yasuragi
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #399 - Gulf Watchers/peraspera/story/
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #398 - Gulf Watchers/peraspera/story/
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #397 - Gulf Watchers/peraspera
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #396 - Gulf Watchers/peraspera
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #395 - Condition: transition - BP's Gulf Castastrophe - David PA
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #394 - Transitions - BP's Gulf Castastrophe - Lorinda Pike
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #393 - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Lorinda Pike
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #392 - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - When Can we Share a Soda? - khowell
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #391 - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Talking about Change - khowell
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #390 - Drips Redux - Lorinda Pike
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #389 - Night of the Living Drips - Lorinda Pike
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #388 - Sittin' Up With the Dead - khowell
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #387 - Time for a Wake? - khowell
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #386 - The Coroner Won't Pronounce - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Yasuragi
Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #385 - Is it Dead? - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Lorinda Pike
The last Mothership has links to reference material.
Previous motherships and ROV's from this extensive live blog effort may be found here.
Again, to keep bandwidth down, please do not post images or videos.