Oil Spill Video Feed Stirs the Web

Oil Spill Video Feed Stirs the Web

by Claudine Zap

11 hours ago

Live: Oil Spill on Camera

The oil gushing out of the busted rig in the Gulf of Mexico has not been stopped. But it can bewatched. As investigators try to pinpoint the blame, and oil company executives point fingers, the curious are heading to the Web to take a look at the deep-sea drama unfolding 5,000 feet underwater.

Turns out, the oil company BP has a video feed of the rig, which now gives a front-row seat to theunending oil leak. Under pressure from Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts, executives made the live feed available to the public. The video is being hosted at the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming website.

News of the live feed caused searches to surge 1,725% on "bp oil spill live feed" in just one day. Searches also gushed on "bp live feed," "bp oil spill live cam," and "bp oil spill live."

According to the AP, a mile-long tube is capturing 210,000 gallons of oil a day, but a lot of oil is still escaping — and can be seen, lava-lamp-like, oozing out on underwater camera. The company initially estimated 210,000 gallons was the total amount of the spill — and now admits it was, well, way off. At worst, the amount of oil that has already spilled is a dozen times more than the Exxon Valdez disaster.

Here's an image from the live feed:

As if any more proof were needed that the world is watching, the video feed crashed due to enormous Web traffic, so instead of a plume of oil, viewers are treated intermittently to a black screen. However, clips of the live footage were captured and are now being showcased on various sites. For live video feeds, check out BP's homepage.

Or you can try the Select Committee on Global Warming's website.

Be patient: The video feeds are overwhelmed with traffic, so they are often slow or simply not available.

http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/93687?fp=1