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The Minerals Management Service (MMS, now the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management) and BP both knew about toxic undersea oil plumes caused by the deepwater use of dispersants since 2000. An independent reporter dug up a pdf file of a report issued after MMS and some oil companies, including BP, did deepwater testing of oil treated with dispersants in Norway. This makes the government pooh-poohing respected scientists' claims of finding dispersed undersea oil plumes even more unconscionable. The known toxicity adds mightily to their sin.
I normally don't include individual, independent reporting in my news summaries but in this case Paul Joffe put his pdf where his mouth is. This quote is from page 89 of the pdf report, DEEP SPILL JIP - EXPERIMENTAL DISCHARGES OF GAS AND OIL AT HELLAND HANSEN – JUNE 2000, TECHNICAL REPORT. - h/t to boatsie who posted this link at the bottom of diary where it wasn't likely seen by many.
The interpretation of this result is that the oil is water-extracted on its way up to the sea surface. The rate of this extraction is dependent on the solubility of the compounds in the water, such that the most soluble compounds are dissolved first. Close to the surface, the Napthalenes are almost completely extracted from the oil. These data may thus serve as a basis for estimates of the rates that various water-soluble oil compounds dissolve into the seawater. This is important information, because the water-soluble compounds are generally the most toxic ones when exposed to marine biota. The results from these measurements show that the rising of the oil through the water column represents a kind of a “stripping” process of some of the most toxic compounds in the oil. The end result is therefore that a portion of the most toxic compounds is left in the water column. This is contrasted to a surface generated slick, where a portion the most toxic compounds merely go into evaporation rather than dissolving into the sea.
BP's Alaska pipeline is ready to unleash another black monster and kill some more of its employees in the bargain. WaPo has done a very good followup piece to the excellent work done by ProPublica and even gives them credit. In response to the article BP brings out their worn-out lies about how safe everything is. If ever a company deserved complete debarment it is BP.
The extensive pipeline system that moves oil, gas and waste throughout BP's operations in Alaska is plagued by severe corrosion, according to an internal maintenance report generated four weeks ago.
The document, obtained by the journalism group ProPublica, shows that as of Oct. 1, at least 148 BP pipelines on Alaska's North Slope received an "F-rank'' from the company. According to BP oil workers, that means inspections have determined that more than 80 percent of the pipe wall is corroded and could rupture. Most of those lines carry toxic or flammable substances. Many of the metal walls of the F-ranked pipes are worn to within a few thousandths of an inch of bursting, according to the document, risking an explosion or spills.
BP oil workers also say that the company's fire and gas warning systems are unreliable, that the giant turbines that pump oil and gas through the system are aging and that some oil and waste holding tanks are verging on collapse.
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Photos taken by employees in the Prudhoe Bay drilling field this summer, and viewed by ProPublica, show sagging and rusted pipelines, some dipping in gentle U-shapes into pools of water and others sinking deeply into thawing permafrost. Marc Kovac, a BP mechanic and welder, said that some of the pipes have hundreds of patches on them and that BP's efforts to rehabilitate the lines were not funded well enough to keep up with their rate of decline.
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BP employees told ProPublica that several of the 120 turbines used to compress gas and push it through the pipelines have been modified to run at higher stress levels and higher temperatures than they were originally designed to handle. They also said giant tanks that hold hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic fluids and waste are sagging under the load of corrosive sediment and could collapse.
"When you make a complaint about it, rather than fix it right, they come up with another Band-Aid," said Kris Dye, a BP oil worker and United Steelworkers representative on the North Slope. "It's very frustrating."
One critical maintenance issue concerns the replacement of the warning systems used to alert workers to a gas leak that could lead to an explosion.
Yet this year, even before the enormous costs of the Gulf oil spill created an estimated $30 billion in BP liabilities, the company was eking out more "efficiencies" in its Alaska budget. It said it would maintain record high funding for new projects and major repairs while reducing its budget for regular maintenance, according to a letter that BP Alaska President John Minge sent to Congress in February. The letter said holding-tank inspections will be deferred and replacement of one pipeline will be postponed; flows through that line will be reduced "to mitigate corrosion."
BP still willing to go for more.... - Phil s 33
....Mr. Dudley's decision to refocus on exploration is potentially risky. BP's exploration concessions are in some of the most geologically challenging parts of the world—adding to the pressure on BP to address its poor safety record. It will also be years before new exploration investment translates into production growth. Development costs are rising steadily. But the pressure to raise cash by selling assets to meet spill costs has given BP the chance to weed out mature or lower growth upstream assets.
BP raises costs for spill but still beat expectations - phil s 33
BP lifted its estimate of the likely cost of its Gulf of Mexico oil spill to $40 billion on Tuesday, denting profits, but its underlying performance beat all expectations on higher refining margins and a lower tax rate.
Anadarko could have a permit to complete a deepwater well in the Gulf in as little as two weeks. It sounds like Salazar isn't wasting any time accommodating big oil's wishes. I wonder if he is planning on publicly sharing Andarko's response plan in case this well blows out.
Anadarko has also stayed busy in the Gulf of Mexico despite the federal drilling moratorium over the summer.
The company kept doing subsea architecture work on the deep-water Caesar-Tonga project with Statoil, Shell and Chevron, engaged in ongoing development planning on the Lucius and Vito projects, completed the Callisto pipeline at the Independence Hub and received a permit for a workover well at K2.
The company said Caesar/Tonga was on target for mid-2011 production and that it was hopeful it would see permits for completion of the previously-drilled wells “by the end of this year if not the next couple of weeks.”
Discolored water has been spotted off the Louisiana coast. There are two patches, one of which is probably an algae bloom but the other may be oil according the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard has added it's own creative solution for not finding any oil by not having sampling kits available on vessels where oil might be found.
About 10 miles away, Hall [spokesman for the Unified Area Command] said a crew spotted what appears "some kind of silvery, weathered oil." The crew in that area didn't have a sampling kit but investigators could go back out and take samples that could be tested to determine whether it's oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill, he said.
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Six months after the spill started, the federal government maintains much of the oil is now gone from the Gulf. But independent researchers say they are discovering significant amounts of crude below the sea's surface, including on the ocean floor. They fear the oil that remains could harm species lower down the food chain.
The Times-Picayune reported in its Saturday editions that fishermen on Friday spotted what appeared to be miles-long strings of weathered oil, and a photojournalist with the newspaper captured the images in a flight over the water.
Researchers found high PAH levels as early as May at spill site. Huge amounts of dispersed oil were released after that. From comments made by other scientists in Congressional testimony and in the press, the levels that were found in this study are sufficient to have a negative impact on plankton and other small organisms that are dependent on ocean currents for locomotion.
They found evidence of the chemicals as deep as 3,300 feet (1,000 metres) and as far away as 8 miles (13 km) in May, and said the spread likely worsened as more oil spilt.
The chemicals, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs, can kill animals right away in high enough concentrations and can cause cancer over time.
"From the time that these observations were made, there was an extensive release of additional oil and dispersants at the site. Therefore, the effects on the deep sea ecosystem may be considerably more severe than supported by the observations reported here,"
the researchers wrote in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
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"Based on our findings, subsurface exposure to PAH resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oil release was likely to be associated with acute toxicity effects in discrete depth layers between 1,000 and 1,400 metres in the region southwest of the wellhead site and extending at least as far as 13 km," the research team wrote.
PAHs include a group of compounds, and different types were at different depths, they said.
It is possible they dissipate quickly, but no one has yet showed this, they added.
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In September a team at Oregon State University said they found alarming levels of PAHs in the region, 40 times higher than before the area was affected by the oil spill.
Government tests for a single dispersant contaminant and claims seafood is just fine. The FDA is taking PR lessons from NOAA (No OIl At All) in assisting them with their seafood testing program. I guess all the toxicology experts who have published in peer-reviewed journals weren't answering their phones.
But Friday the FDA issued a press release indicating there is no need to worry. The administration announced that in addition to the sensory tests for dispersants that are already in place, it developed another test with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). This test was administered to fish, crab, shrimp and oysters. All were deemed safe for human consumption.
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The new test was developed to test levels of dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate (DOSS). DOSS is a leading component used in the dispersants that were released in the Gulf to break up the oil flooding the Gulf.
The majority of Alabamians polled don't trust BP nor the government. One wonders about the people who don't share this view given NOAA's (No Oil At All) and BP's track record.
Dr. Charles Brown, a professor in USA’s [University of South Alabama] psychology department, understands the wariness of locals – 60 percent interviewed said they had no trust in the information that was being distributed by BP and 59 percent said they had no trust in the federal government’s response to the spill.
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Erin Capley, a graduate student working on her Master’s in environmental toxicology, echoed concerns held by 71 percent of respondents that the spill’s ecological damage is permanent.
“[BP] took a gamble with their knee-jerk reaction trying to appease us,” she said. “They are concerned with making people happy first, not the environment … Sand’s ability to transport water is very high.
“If the oil gets into the water, it will seep into the sand. No matter how deep they dig, it’s already there. You can treat it, but that’s a lot of sand, as deep as you could go.
“And crude has a lot of nasty stuff like Toluene that has been proven to cause organ failure or even cancer. We still don’t know the long-term effects of some of these things,” she explained. “BP basically dissolved the oil in the water. Now you can’t get it out; you can’t filter it; it’s in the ocean.”
Skytruth and the Marine Conservation Biology Institute have issued a report, Impacts, Perception, and Policy Implications of the Deepwater Horizon Oil and Gas Disaster, summarizing their work on the BP calamity. The footnoted, fact-dense report is available in pdf form.
The article chronicles 9 significant observations made by SkyTruth and other independent analysts using satellite images, including:
Our calculation, released just one week after the rig exploded, that the spill was at least 20 times larger than the official estimate and had already surpassed the Exxon Valdez incident as our nation’s worst oil spill
The surprising discovery of another nearby oil spill, a chronic leak from storm-damaged wells, unrelated to the BP disaster
Visual confirmation of oil entering the Gulf’s Loop Current
A cumulative BP spill footprint spanning 68,000 square miles of the Gulf’s surface, larger than the state of Oklahoma
Moreover, the authors point out that public attention was overly focused on the easily visible impacts of oil on the beaches and marshes, not the unseen impacts far offshore, in the depths, where the spill was occurring. The authors pose 8 important questions about the hidden subsea impacts that must be addressed and applied to future ocean policy and spill-response decision making.
Finally, Dr. Norse offers 9 major conclusions from this tragic experience and 5 recommendations for safer, environmentally smarter offshore drilling and ocean management policy. He emphasizes the importance of incorporating offshore energy development into the new National Ocean Policy using ecosystem-based spatial planning.
Dr. Norse was the Environmental Protection Agency’s expert on impacts of oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico during the late 1970s, before he founded MCBI. Mr. Amos spent 10 years working for companies that help the oil and gas industry find new places to drill before he founded SkyTruth.
One of No Oil At All's (NOAA) real scientists is leaving to do real research where it will be appreciated. NOAA's loss is the University of South Florida's (USF) gain where Steve Murawski, chief science adviser for NOAA's marine fisheries service, will become the St. Petersburg Downtown Progress-Peter R. Betzer Endowed Chair.
Murawski is credited with making peace with the USF and academic community after NOAA deceptively and unfairly trashed their work on undersea oil plumes.
"Steve is not only an excellent scientist, but a skilled consensus builder," William Hogarth, dean of USF's College of Marine Science, said in a news release. "Steve will bring a vast amount of national as well as international experience to the table and help us move the college forward."
As director of the college, Hogarth received the brunt of the criticism from not only NOAA, but from petroleum giant BP, after USF scientists announced in May that vast globs of oil had been detected in the deep waters of the Gulf.
NOAA, which funded USF's research, disputed the findings. Federal officials urged caution, saying scientists at USF and other schools were speculating. Hogarth refused to back down and stood by the results announced by his researchers.
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As the chief science adviser for NOAA's marine fisheries service, Murawski continued that diplomacy from the time USF announced the discovery of the subsurface layers of oil to leading a scientific summit in St. Pete Beach in August where researchers compared data on the effects of the spill.
Bob Cavnar reminds us that a bad cement job does not necessarily a blowout make. He has a laundry list of mistakes that likely contributed to the Deepwater Horizon calamity. Bob's conclusion shows an appreciation for the complexity of deepwater drilling. Don't miss his new book, Disaster on the Horizon. I'm only a third of the way through it and that much is more than worth the price.
...While interesting and demonstrative of the instability of nitrified cements, the main message here is that bad cement does not equal blowout. Bad cement jobs in the oil and gas industry are common, and there are several ways to remediate those bad jobs after the fact. It's very difficult to determine if a cement job is not effective, even with a bond log, especially in the early hours after a cement job has been pumped.
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This disaster was certainly preventable and caused by poor design, poor decision making, and rushing to get the well completed. The tragic consequences should be a lesson to the entire industry, but I'm not holding my breath.
BP gives $218 million to Louisiana for coastal restoration, seafood testing and tourism. It remains to be seen whether this money will be spent wisely or squandered on things like Jindal's boondoggle sand berms.
Gov. Bobby Jindal says BP has agreed to give Louisiana $140 million for barrier islands and other coastal restoration efforts.
Jindal, during a news conference Monday at Acme Oyster House in the French Quarter, also said the oil giant has agreed to give $30 million to the state Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism to promote Louisiana tourism, and another $48 million for Louisiana seafood safety and promotion programs.
The Louisiana oyster industry is in a world of hurt. Not only do they have to cope with the current loss of oysters due to BP's black plague but wetlands restoration makes the future uncertain for people trying to decide where to obtain leases for their oyster beds. Oysters require a particular balance of salinity and fresh water. The large freshwater releases from the Mississippi necessary for wetlands restoration will seriously affect where oyster beds will thrive.
After five years and four hurricanes, 2010 had all the markings of a banner year for Pete Vujnovich and his array of oyster leases west of the Mississippi River.
But the months-long assault of oil in Barataria Bay -- and more importantly the state's decision to unleash fresh water from the river to beat back oil -- has wiped out more than three-quarters of his crop, leaving the next five years an open question.
"Where do I start reinvesting? Where do I start redeveloping?" Vujnovich said last week, after returning to Port Sulphur from his first trip to haul oysters since May 22. "Is it going to be clear in 10 years? Is it going to be clear in two years?"
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River diversions such as the ones opened this spring and summer are a cornerstone of the state's coastal restoration master plan. More and bigger diversions of fresh water through engineered gaps in Mississippi River levees are seen as a crucial component to beating back salt water from the Gulf of Mexico that has eroded marshes and led to monumental land loss.
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Generations of lease holders and oyster fishers have invested countless hours and dollars into cultivating oyster beds -- basically hard formations of rocks and shells built up over time -- that are tied to specific geographical locations. So naturally there has been widespread concern in the oyster industry when there are discussions of introducing large amounts of fresh water into the estuaries.
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Last month Garret Graves, Jindal's coastal adviser, announced the creation of the Governor's Oyster Advisory Committee, a 15-member panel tasked with making decisions about the future of the industry and the use of BP funds and other money that could aid the fishery.
Some of the more pressing questions facing the committee deal with whether to reopen leasing in certain areas, and where to do it. Graves said the intention is to map out salinity zones to guide the industry, based on the locations of potential diversion sites that may be constructed in the future.
The number of claims and denials are up sharply. The deadline for filing temporary claims that people can receive money for without giving up the right to sue BP is November 23. Feinberg says that many of those claims have either insufficient or no documentation.
Thousands are suffering from a summer of lost revenue after BP PLC's April 20 well blowout off the Louisiana coast spewed more than 170 million gallons of oil into the sea. Fishermen who weren't working for BP's cleanup sat idle at the docks with no seafood to sell, while beachside restaurants found themselves with few patrons, and hotels were nearly empty during a time when many depend on high-season revenue to carry them through the slow winter months.
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"A true emergency claim one would have expected would have come in shortly after Aug. 23," Feinberg [claims administrator] said, referring to the date he took over the process from BP. "But two-thirds of the claims have come in since Oct. 1, and (many of) those claims are undocumented."
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For Gulf coast residents with apparently legitimate claims, the process can be maddening.
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Lindsay [wedding planner] sought about $240,000 for lost revenue because of beach wedding cancellations and received a check for just $7,700. She was told, like so many others, she could request additional money in her claim for a final payment, a check that likely won't arrive for months.
"I have three weddings booked for next year. That's it. Normally, by this time, I would have 50 on the books," Lindsay said. "I'm at my breaking point. I don't know what else to do except file bankruptcy."
Salazar is proposing a new safety institute to prevent future oil spills and to improve the response should they happen. The institute will focus on BOPs, only a small part of a worthwhile prevention strategy, and containment plans (ones being discussed in the press won't withstand hurricanes). If past is prologue, such an institute will be more of a PR move than something that will come up with effective solutions.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday proposed a new “institute” intended to improve federal and private cooperation in preventing oil spills, something that was sorely lacking before millions of barrels of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico this summer.
The proposed “Ocean Energy Safety Institute” would include federal, industry, academic and scientific officials and would be housed in Salazar’s department. It would look to coordinate and prioritize research dollars as well from the Energy Department, U.S. Coast Guard and private sources.
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The institute would look at industry-wide practices regarding drilling safety, spill containment and response, and identifying and funding new offshore drilling technologies. Those technologies would particularly hone in on enhancing blowout preventers for wells and spill containment.
==== ROV Feeds =====
20876/21507 - Development Driller II's ROV 1
32900/49178 - Development Driller II's ROV 2
39168/39169 - Chouest Holiday's ROV 1
40492/40493 - Chouest Holiday's ROV 2
58406/21750 - Iron Horse ROV 1 (Original feed which is still active)
If Iron Horse won't load in VLC or Quicktime with the above link try this one.
23211/23803 - Iron Horse ROV 1 (New feed designations)
22070/22936 - Iron Horse ROV 2 (New feed designations)
24301/24309 - West Sirius' ROV 1 (New feed)
The Development Driller 3 moved off from Relief Well #1's wellhead area at about 1:00 AM a week couple of weeks ago Saturday. She joined the Discoverer Enterprise, who's been stationary for the past month or so, approximately six miles northwest of the Development Driller 2. The Discoverer Enterprise is a dredger, and has been accompanied for some time by anti-pollution vessels, generally the Virginia Responder and the Mississippi Responder. The move by DD3 has not been reported in any news we've seen, but it's the first she's moved off the Macondo site since arriving to drill the relief wells with her sister ship, DD2.
In the meantime, the West Sirius (photos and descriptions and here and here), a semi-submersible driller, has replaced the DD3 beside DD2. Cargo ships, skimmers, and various other ships have been seen coming and going from the area of both Development Drillers on a regular basis.
The West Sirius left the well site yesterday, Nov. 2, and the DD2 is on the well site.
That's a lot of action for the waters around a well that was supposed to be plugged and abandoned a long time ago.
==Multiple stream feeds (hard on browser/bandwidth)==
German multiple feed site that updates once a minute—Does not crash browsers and loads really fast.
Belgian multi-feed site, Mozaiek Webcam – BP Olielek Olieramp Deepwater Horizon
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 Wednesday - BP & MMS deception about toxic plumes - BP Catastrophe AUV #419 - peraspera
Gulf Watchers Monday - More on Dispersants - BP Catastrophe AUV #418 - shanesnana
Gulf Watchers Sunday - NOAA, FDA Lower Standards So Gulf Seafood Will Pass - BP Catastrophe AUV #417 - Yasuragi
Gulf Watchers Friday: GOTV-All Politics is Local: Kamala Harris/CA-AG: BP Catastrophe AUV#416 - ArthurPoet
Gulf Watchers Wednesday - EPA Whistleblower Crucifies BP on Safety - BP Catastrophe AUV #415 - peraspera
Gulf Watchers Monday Edition - Reparations, Repair, Responsibility - BP Catastrophe AUV #414 - shanesnana
Gulf Watchers Sunday Edition - Will New Lawsuit Revive the Moratorium? - BP Catastrophe AUV #413 - Yasuragi
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #412 - gchaucer2
Gulf Watchers Wednesday Edition - 6 Months of Gulf Sorrow - BP Catastrophe AUV #411 - peraspera
Gulf Watchers Monday Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #410 - shanesnana
Gulf Watchers Morning Edition - BP Catastrophe AUV #409 - Lorinda Pike
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.