CNN 2010-06-02

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The headlines are coming! The headlines are coming! They're here. It's Friday, which is awesome¹! I'm Carl Azuz. This is CNN Student News.

The oil spill in the Gulf² of Mexico is up first today, and there is a lot of new stuff to tell you about. First: the "top kill" procedure. What we know: It started Wednesday afternoon. What we don't know: if it's successful. At least, we don't know yet. Yesterday, the Coast Guard said the top kill process was going as planned. A BP official said it had been a success so far, but he also said it'll take 24 to 48 hours to complete.

Another thing we do know: This is now the worst spill in American history. It could already be twice as big as the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. For a while, the estimate was that this leak was spilling around 5,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf every day. New estimates say, nah ah: It could be anywhere from 12,000 to 19,000 barrels per day. That means between 18 and 30 million gallons of oil might have been spilled.

We've also talked about the controversy³ surrounding the Minerals Management Service. That's the government agency that oversees⁴ oil drilling. There have been accusations⁵ about mismanagement and inappropriate behavior from some members of the agency. Yesterday, the director of the MMS resigned, although some sources indicated that she was fired. Officials are investigating what caused this spill. In the meantime, President Obama wants to limit new oil drilling and exploration, at least for a while.

You can keep up with all the details on this throughout the weekend. This is a dynamic story, so head to CNNStudentNews.com. Meanwhile, you've heard about the impact of this oil spill. Rob Marciano is going to give us a first-hand look that is absolutely shocking. Watch this.

It was worse back there where it's super thick. I've never seen anything like it. Unreal.

Oh man, look at that streak⁶. Look at the holes off of those. It's thick, thick, thick.

Like mud.

That's unreal. This is ugly. This is really ugly.

Ugly is definitely an understatement. And we're only 12 miles from shore. By far, the thickest oil we've seen yet. This is just disturbing. Check it out. I mean, the oil, layers of oil actually building on each other in a putty-like form. This definitely is not dispersed⁷. It's barely weathered at all. It almost looks like it's fresh, fresh from the pipe. Some areas of the oil are thicker than others. This is only the western edge of the slick. We are still not even 50 miles from the site of the spill. Unbelievable.

Our little armada pauses. We're out here with five other boats, and all of them have this nasty oil stuck to the hull⁸. That's going to be a chore getting off. This boat just across the way, those guys are lowering a submersible camera to take a look at what the water and oil mixture looks like below the surface.

Boats are carrying scientists peering into and under the oil. Dr. Ian McDonald takes samples back to his lab in Florida, while Dr. Doug Inkley patrols for the National Wildlife Federation⁹. A dead eel¹⁰ floats toward our boat. It too is taken as a sample, now headed to the lab for a closer look. Minutes later, something else is in the water. This one is alive.

That animal might be in a lot of trouble.

You normally don't see sharks like this running around on the surface, but this animal looks like it's in distress¹¹.

The shark dives as we approach. Along the way, we see other sea creatures struggling in the oil like this baby crab¹². What's on the surface is easy to see.

The animals like this that are out in the open ocean and we don't see them washed up. How do you assess that? You have a shark that dies in the water here and sinks to the bottom. Where's the assessment¹³ on that? How do you assess that?

Can't count it. Much like the oil still spewing from the well, the amount of wildlife lost here may never be known. Rob Marciano, CNN, Venice, Louisiana.