oil from the gulf a day. numbers matter here. this is a number the feds did not question. it s also 30,000 barrels more than the current upper leak estimates. which would mean if bp were living up to its promise, it would be capturing each and every drop of oil coming out of this pipe every day with capacity left over to do the same for seven more leaking pipes just like this one. nothing would be hitting the beaches or the marshes. ask a shrimper if that s the case. see what an oyster man has to say. look at the oiled birds and see how well bp is living up to its oil collection promise to regulators. run the numbers and you ll see. they re not doing very well at all. according to the washington post, skimming only accounts for 67,000 barrels of oil recovered and not per day either, but over the entire 78 days of this disaster. burning it gets another quarter million or so.
it would be capturing each and every drop of oil coming out of this pipe every day with capacity leftover to do the same for seven more leaking pipes just like this one if it were living up to its promise. nothing would be hitting the beaches or the marshes. ask a shrimper to see if that s the case. see what an oyster man has to say. look at the oiled birds and see how well bp is living up to its promise. run the numbers and you ll see. they re not doing very well at all. according to the washington post, skimming only accounts for 67,000 barrels of oil recovered and not per day either, but over the entire 78 days of this disaster. burning it gets another quarter million or so. another 600,000 barrels is collected with that cap on the blow-out preventer, which leaves more than a million barrels of crude floating around the gulf. when asked for comment by the post, a bp spokesman said, quote shall the numbers, well, they are what they are.
ali alive. it s frankly not a pretty picture at all right now in the gulf. i just remember seeing those images from the very start. and they re still so heartbreaking to look at, joe. thanks so much. it s not just wildlife getting sick as you might imagine. tomorrow on 360 a disturbing question. might bp be trying to hide the risks to cleanup workers? more than 20 years ago, exxon sealed the health records of workers sickened while cleaning up the sound. some of those workers are still sick today. did you have it before you started working on the exxon valdez? no, no, no. and the same thing with my eyesight. i don t know if my failing eyesight i m going blind. you think you were poisoned out there? yes, yes. silently poisoned.
gulf.s you know, can you say plenty about how resilient the people down here really are, how tough they ve been in the face of disaster, but toughness only goes so far. now, after katrina, the recession and now this, many have reached the limits of resilience. the gulf fishing boat captain took his life recently and no one can be sure of why. you never really know. the spill took his livelihood and the fear is he won t be the last. we saw a spike in mental health issues after the exxon valdez disaster and local professionals say they are seeing the same thing now. bp promises to make things right on the gulf but the $10 million question tonight is can they? will they make this right? randi kaye takes us up close. reporter: when louisiana s health secretary sent this letter to bp last week, requesting $10 million in funding for mental health, he expected a speedy answer. days, at most.
issues after the exxon valdez disaster and local professionals say they are seeing the same thing now. bp promises to make things right on the gulf but the $10 million question tonight is can they? will they make this right? randi kaye takes us up close. reporter: when louisiana s health secretary sent this letter to bp last week, requesting $10 million in funding for mental health, he expected a speedy answer. days, at most. this is what he told us last week. that s one of the reasons why we put a deadline on the letter. if you notice the last sentence, we said we need an answer by next week. reporter: that deadline has come and gone. no answer by bp. and this was the state s second request for $10 million. bp responded to the first request, saying it, quote, looked forward to continuing the dialogue. but the oil giant provided nothing. the money, if it ever comes, would be used to treat those experiencing emotional trauma since the spill. fishermen like luis lund jr. who