one of the teams is here in woods hole and we talked to them about how they reached their numbers. you know so. reporter: he is a deep water expert the government is counting on to measure the amount of oil spilling into the gulf. he once sent this vehicle seven miles under the ocean s surface. in his lab you ll find robots like these that operate deep in the sea. for the first time, he was asked to use his engineering skills to measure an oil spill that was initially estimated to be 5,000 barrels of oil a day. i think that, you know, the initial estimates were just that, they were initial estimates, kind of from the hip, and really they re pulled almost from thin air, i think. so, you know, what we and others have been trying to do is to employ different techniques to make good measurements as to how much oil has been spilled. reporter: he and scientist rich from the woods hole ocean graphic institute measured the spill from a ship above the spill site in late may. unlike ot
swim in. the red flags are up. chaise lounges are empty. it makes them weep because they love to come. others say we came anyway, trying to enjoy our vacation. one thing everyone agrees, it s going to keep coming and things will get worse. major garrett, live at the scene. thank you very much. we re getting new pictures of the disaster as it pours in each and every day. steve harrigan live on grand isle. louisiana. you have new images from the spill site. how has it changed? dramatic new pictures from ground zero at the spill site. you can see in any direction 360 degrees, the horizon is a black blanket of oil over the gulf water. also out there, you can see just how the ships, the collection ships, are dwarfed, specs in the sea of oil.
images from the spill site, steve? how has it changed? reporter: jon, we do have some fresh images from that spill site. it s remarkable when you look off in any direction for miles all the way to the horizon, you really see oil everywhere you look. those ships trying to deal with it are just specks down on that black blanket of oil. the other thing you see are these controlled burns that s lighting the oil on fire on the gulf s surface. so when you see the gulf burning like that, those huge plumes of smoke filling the sky, that s actually a sign of progress, strange as that might sound. bp has responded to the coast guard s order, they said they will move more assets into the area, by the end of this month they expect to be picking up to the surface about 50,000 barrels of oil every day. jon: i know there s been some talk about about these bp clean-up crews and how hard they re working, what s the controversy? reporter: well, here on grand isle there is a budding controversy, jon.
coming in contact with this crude must go through what is hazmat trains, a that stands for hazardous material. this course runs from four hours to 40 hours. basically it is designed to keep you safe if you are trying to clean up water, rescue animals or restore habitat. when you take them home you have to make sure you don t contaminate yourself. reporter: we just completed the four-hour course. we want to keep ourselves safe on the front lines telling a story. there are hundreds of people working here. hundreds. and everyone has pretty much has gone through this course. everyone. it is a requirement. reporter: i fulfilled my course. i have this badge. when we are at the spill site, that is our plan. we are heading to the maish, to ground zero where you can see this oil. we are protected we are going to wear this hazmat suit.
it is absolutely in their best interest because now the oil coming up and they put the containment cap over, some of that oil already entered the market chts shouldn t they. speed it up. why doesn t bp have the other tanker there. they don t have the other pieces of the puzzle there. this comes on the heels of new inspection violations we re learning about this morning, 16 in fact from bp. the rig had missed 16 different inspection violations since 2005. also, something fascinating this morning, new pictures of a giant contraption, some part and there it is, of an oil rig belonging to bp. washed up on the shore in florida, about 190 miles from the spill site. a refrigerator. they do not know if this is from the deep water horizon, it certainly begs the question, is this what else is floating out in the ocean. they don t know if it s the deepwater horizon and that s in florida and you re