By Gerald Helguero: Subscribe to Gerald's RSS feed
July 7, 2010 5:25 PM EDT
A Navy blimp to assist oil skimming operations will be arriving to the Gulf Coast Wednesday evening, according to the Unified Command Joint Information Center.
The slow-moving airship will be arriving at the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in Mississippi after more than a month of travel from Yuma, Arizona where it's based. The blimp will ultimately operate from a mooring three miles southeast of the Mobile Bay shoreline in Alabama.
The primary purpose of 178-feet long MZ-3A airship will be to spot and monitor for oil contamination along the Gulf Coast.
"The airship will operate relatively close to shore, primarily supporting skimmers to maximize their effectiveness," said U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Kevin Sareault.
The airship is more economical and can stay in the air for 12 hours, longer than helicopters or airplanes already in use, according to the Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center.
The primary means for locating oil will be by the visual observation of workers aboard the blimp, Sareault said. Additional sensors, which may take several days to install, may be added when they arrived on July 12. Other aircraft already have electro-optical, infrared and radar sensors onboard.
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Once oil has been spotted, it can be burned, dispersed with chemicals that break down oil into small balls, or skimmed by boats.
Meanwhile, BP said on Wednesday, that a program that has contracted more than 3,000 local commercial fishing vessels across the Gulf states is being fine-tuned to more effectively deploy boats for skimming.
The changes, which come after a meeting with participants in the so-called Vessels of Opportunity program, will be "getting the right vessels into the fight in the fairest way possible," according to Doug Suttles, a senior executive in BP's Exploration and Production unit.
Local, in-state commercial and charter fishing boats will get greater preference for contracts while recreational boats will be used less if possible, BP said on Tuesday.
Teams of boats will also be organized through BP's branch offices and there will be an increased rotation of boats used, the company said.
The recovery mission is also currently testing "A Whale," a gigantic, 10-story skimming vessel.
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