Here is a different idea for containing the spill.

-snip-


(And then Hofmeister made a startling suggestion...)

JH: The work going on to close the well is taking multiple approaches, and I am aware that BP has sent out a message to all the oil companies asking for help and advice. And I actually sent some people to BP in terms of the spill response cleanup to try to get them aware of a process that has been used in the Arabian Gulf that has not been used in the Gulf of Mexico, and that is to use supertankers, empty supertankers, to suck up the oil off the surface, where they can store the oil, they can treat the water, they can discharge the water and then they can either salvage the oil or destroy it, as the case may be. And I know the mayor of New Orleans and a few other officials are now asking BP about that process as a result of these engineers coming forward from Saudi Aramco.



Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/obama-response-to-gulf-oil-spill-051110#ixzz0njypQAmV

but your idea has legs.

have already offered oil skimmer ships and have been refused. Reason given, the ships return a larger than excepted amount of droplets back in to the gulf. They don't care that the ships recover most of the oil. But, thats the law.