They did a formal test this weekend, gave it a section of ocean near the spill site and turned it loose. Essentially it worked about as well as any other skimmer works in high seas... which is to say, “not”. If there hadn’t been all the political pressure to hurry up and test it, I suspect they’d have waited for better conditions and it would have been fine.
At any rate, they’re going to retry once the seas calm.
Quite frankly, I’m not sure I see any need to test anything — just go out and do the job. The testing, at this point, serves more as a delaying tactic than anything else. It’s an excuse for why the problem isn’t being dealt with. I say they aren’t dealing with the problem because they very much do not want the problem dealt with.
The administration has been hurrying things along? ROTFLOL