It confirms the existence of underwater oil stains in the Gulf

Jane Lubchenco, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has confirmed the existence of offshore oil stains in the Gulf of Mexico. "They are very small concentrations," he said, "but definitely there is oil under the surface."

The news comes ten days after the chief executive of BP, Tony Hayward, denied the existence of underwater spots and after three weeks that the very head of the NOAA said it was "premature" to reach that conclusion.

"I suspected, but it's good to have confirmation," Jane Lubchenco has qualified, part of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico today, the International Ocean Day "does exactly 50 days.The existence of spots submarine was first detected by scientists at the University of South Florida, who collected samples at great depths and over 60 kilometers of where the platform exploded Deepwater Horizon.

At least half a dozen researchers from many other universities in southern United States, aboard the Pelican, certified the presence of oil in the middle layers of the Gulf of Mexico and blamed the controversial use of dispersants."Oil is on the surface," said however, the BP chief executive Tony Hayward on an expedition chartered on May 30 and who had access to various media. "Oil has a specific gravity, which is half that of water," said Hayward, as an expert and geologist. "And it tends to rise to the surface by the difference of gravity."

A researcher involved in the group of scientists that advises the Obama Administration, Ira Leifer, has meanwhile raised the alarm to the latest BP maneuvers to try to contain the spill.
Liefer, who works at the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California at Santa Barbara, says that the amount of oil spilled may have increased substantially since BP decided to cut the oil well tubing to implement containment hood.
The British company says that urgent action is serving to capture and 2.4 million liters of oil per day. Leifer believes however that the flow of oil escaping from under the hood is "well above" that was poured before the operation carried out last weekend.

Coast Guard Commander Thad Allen admitted yesterday that the new flow of the spill is still "a mystery" and that one of the priorities for the next few days will be just "reevaluate" the latest estimates, made three weeks ago.