weather. from high above, there s little activity. high seas suspended all skimming and controlled burn operations. the weather holds the upper hand in this response. if not the daily flow, it s the weather that adds to the difficulty. reporter: at the spill site, testing is being done on a converted super tanker dubbed the a whale. if green lighted it could suck up to 2 1 million gallons of oily water a day. looking at any and all possible alternate technologies we ll flil ovy over the a whal a trial and error operation but assess the effectiveness of that. reporter: hurricane alex forced a delay of a third containment ship at the spill scene. it s expected to come on line this week, something that is desperately needed. with all three systems operating at the peak rate will move between 50,000 and 53,000 barrels per day. reporter: bp s ceo bob dudley
and they don t return to port quickly. it has to be a measured delivery process to when to turn them off and on. reporter: there are 13,000 people in louisiana alone battling to ean up the spill. one tool they use in the skies tonight, bret. the spotter planes and the chemical disbursement planes have been grounded because of the rough weather. we had fox cameras on both of them. spotter and chemical disbursement plane as they flew out to treat one of the oil spills in the gulf. they found a large area, ten-by-sixteen nautical miles west of the spill site and sprayed 100 gallons of 1700 gallons of chemicals to hit a sheen. the coast guard calls it another effective tool to control the disaster the grows larger every day. the rule of thumb for every first responder, bret, is to fight the source and control the source. that is something they are struggling mightily to do
opportunity to fly to the spill site with a coast guard on a helicopter. it was our first look at operations there since rough weather earlier in week grounded most of the ships and aircraft working the gulf and what we saw was jaw dropping and awful. nearly 20 miles from the source of the spill, the gulf turns from blue to black and stays black mile after mile. up until now, the only oil we ve seen close to shore has been a thin layer, a sheen with metallic and rainbow colors but for the last 15 miles, we ve been flying over thick, black crude floating on the gulf. the site itself is dramatic and rough. two large flames scorching captured oil nonstop. a dozen large ships assisting with containment and support. coast guard commander nathan supervises operations. does it tear you up to see what happens out here? it does in a personal sense and professional sense, i m encouraged with what we re doing at the source. despite what has been said, so
reporter: a jay hawk helicopter has landed here, we are told we will be getting an exclusive ride on the helicopter out to the spill site, this the first trip since hurricane alex moved in and put a dammer on damper on cleanup efforts. one very big offer has been accepted, as you mentioned the world s largest skimming vessel now in the gulf, going to be tested for the first time today. this massive taiwanese flag former tank eris 3 1/2 football fields long and ten stories high retrofitted with vents. it is designed to separate the oil from the water, keep the water on board and channel the water back into the gulf. it s never been tried before and no one knows for sure if it will work. scientists at aoupb -dz say they
1700 gallons of chemicals on a large area west of the spill site where they hit a sheen that s embedded with dark oil streamers. the coast guard says this is one of many effective tools in the fight to contain this spill, greg, which grows larger every day. rick leventhal, thank you very much. fake passports. more stacks of hundred dollar bills. a bunch of phoney names just some of the details we re learning about the alleged russian spies busted in the united states. we ll have the latest on the suspects, including one getting a load of attention, a woman who goes by the name of anna chapman. studio b, 90 seconds. ah, tha, sir. as we all know, geico has been saving people money on rv, camper and trailer insurance. .as well as motorcycle insurance. oh.sorry, technical difficulties.