welcome home, man. from america s news headquarters, choppy seas in the gulf of mexico delaying oil cleanup efforts. off shore skimming vessels are able to operate off the coast of louisiana. but not in alabama, mississippi or florida waters. this gigantic skimmer named a whale is being tested. it s suppose to be able to handle 21 million of gallons of oil tainted water every day. waves were making it tough to find out what this massive ship can do. and runaway horses bringing bellevue, iowa s fourth of july parade it a tragic end.
57 million cubic feet of natural gas flared off. since operations began, more than 630,000 barrels of oil have been recovered. phil keating, reporting live in grand isle, louisiana for us. a lot of hopes are hinging on this gigantic skimmer, huh rick? reporter: yeah, unfortunately, the hopes are being hampered for the third consecutive day because out there behind me in the gulf of mexico, there s a low pressure system right around the site, just south of it, of the deep water horizon site, and it s causing a lot of wind, big waves, and that is proving to be a major problem for getting some sort of performance evaluation of the a whale. simply put, the ship has a series of slots around the valve, and the ship uses the valves to then make the slots exactly water level. however, the waves are churning up and down in large volume here, and so they re sloshing around, and of course, the flatter