More Jones Act/Oil Spill Government Procrastinating

As I said in an earlier post, this administration has been sitting on its hands with respect to maximizing the response effort to the oil spill. See the Reuters story below and click on the link for the list (pdf file) of the 22 foreign offers being considered, finally . . . ON DAY 72! OF THE SPILL!!! Of these offers, very few are actually skimming or recovery vessels.

Supposedly, there are some 5,000 vessels at work on the spill. How many of these are vessels of opportunity (out of work shrimpers) and how many are oil service boats with no skimming or recovery capability? I've seen two different reports of how many foreign vessels are at work, one was 45 vessels, another was 23% of the fleet. 23% would be 1,013. I seriously doubt it's the latter. Stay tuned. I have requested a list of all the vessels currently conducting oil spill relief operations in the Gulf. Meanwhile, here's the Reuters' story:

US says will take foreign help on Gulf oil spill
29 Jun 2010 23:40:40 GMT
Source: Reuters

BOSTON, June 29 (Reuters) - The United States will accept offers from a dozen countries and international agencies to help contain and clean up the BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the State Department said on Tuesday.

"The United States will accept 22 offers of assistance from 12 countries and international bodies, including two high-speed skimmers and fire containment boom from Japan," the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

Overall, 27 countries have offered assistance ranging from vessels and dispersant, to fire boom and technical personnel. In most cases reimbursement would be required.

"We are currently working out the particular modalities of delivering the offered assistance," the State Department said.

The following link has details of what each country has offered:http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/143488.pdf (Reporting by Ros Krasny; editing by Chris Wilson)

And where is the Super Skimmer A. Whale? I was starting think this ship was an internet joke, but it is in fact listed as a converted super tanker (OSRV) on the USCG CGMIX PSIX homepage search engine:

[UPDATE: FOUND, See "Where is the A Whale?" post above.]

Vessel Information: Vessel Particulars:

Vessel Name: A WHALE
VIN: 9424209
Hull Number:
Vessel Flag: LIBERIA
Vessel Call Sign: A8UA7
Build Year: Service: Oil Recovery
Length: 1115.4 ft
Breadth: 0.0 ft
Depth: 0.0 ft
Alternate VINs:
IMO Number: 9424209
Service Information: Tonnage Information:

Service: In Service
Out Of Service Date: N/A
Last Removed From Service By: N/A Deadweight:
Gross Tonnage(GRT): 172146
Net Tonnage(NRT):
Gross Tonnage(GT ITC):
Cargo Authority:
Vessel Documents and Certifications
Document Agency Date Issued Expiration Date
COC-TVE Renewal June 24, 2010 June 24, 2012
Certificate of Compliance - Tank Vessel USCG June 24, 2010 June 24, 2012
Summary of Coast Guard Contacts
View Data From (MM/DD/YYYY): To:

But where is she now. I've gone to the AIS Tracker page and punched in her call signs but have had no luck tracking her position. Makes me wonder.

~seabgb