[Marine_Uncle]

Checked out the three Utube links you referred to.
So it appears as of today the whale is not quite scooping up as much oil as had been hoped for. I wonder if they had it run through a thick slick.
If I remember correctly. The EPA put a restraint on it based on it's ability to skim then return less then 15ppm parts of oil/water ratio back to the sea. As many suggest. It be far better to let it just get as much of the surface oil up as possible within it's swaths then allow for the much lower concerntration of water/oil to simply degrade by natural processes, eg. microbs.
Meanwhile the surface waves will increase in size. What a botched up operation this whole affair has been.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Just found this :

Amazing Photos Of U.S. Coast Guard Helicopters In Action In The Gulf Of Mexico

I'll include the first of the series.....

Image: United States Coast GuardGULF OF MEXICO - A member of the Coast Guard flying a mission over the Gulf of Mexico July 4 overlooks the "A Whale," an enormous vessel that was recently deployed to assist with collecting product from the Mississippi Canyon oil spill site. This Taiwanese ship is 10 stories high and as longer than three football fields, and its manufacturer claims it is capable of skimming more than 21 million gallons of oil everyday. U.S. Army photo photo by Spc. Stephanie Cassinos.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Good photo of the A-Whale in action:

Image:

United States Coast Guard

GULF OF MEXICO - The vessel "A Whale" conducts a shakedown voyage to evaluate its oil skimming capabilities on open water as part of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill response July 4, 2010. The converted tank ship is being evaluated by its owner, TMT, to gauge the effectiveness of its oil recovery systems. The ship was recently converted in Lisbon, Portugal, in June with the hope that it could dramatically increase the amount of oil recovered from the BP oil spill. U.S. Coast Guard photo.

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Looks to me like the boom is to help calm the water on the left side of the ship and the skimmed water is coming out on the right side......

Except this photo doesn't have the boom...on the left side...