Taking the fight to the oil spill

About nine weeks ago I made my first trip into the oily waters of the Gulf of Mexico since the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion. There was plenty of activity at the Venice (La.) Port Complex where I climbed aboard a vessel to view the damage done by the oil. At the time, there were 1,100 vessels, including tugs, barges, skimmers, remotely operated vehicles and more, working the spill, according to Joint Information Center statistics. More than 1.52 million feet of containment boom and 560,000 feet of sorbent boom had been deployed. Curiously, though, I saw few crews on the water that...