Flyover Shows Cap Reducing Oil Present In Gulf

Normally on these flights over the Deepwater Horizon site I look for the thickest spots of oil, but on today's trip it's what we didn't see that was most newsworthy. We didn't see fire billowing from rigs set up around the leak site. Since little or no oil is flowing to the surface there's nothing to burn off. This close to the epicenter I also expected to see thick patches of oil.

Wide swaths of thin oily sheen have replaced thick globs of oil normally found around the deepwater site. Instead of smelling like a garage, the closest petroleum odor I could detect from 1000 feet up probably came from the plane's exhaust system. I also saw fewer boats around the spill site--coast guard officials say many of them have moved further away since the immediate threat of oil drifted out from the spill source. While the cap is certainly good progress for a leak that hasn't stopped in nearly three months, this trip shows our fight is far from over as oily sheen stretches for miles across the horizon.