something about this appeals to me

the solution to the Gulf of Mexico or maybe other deep water oil spills could be..

Super Quick Undersea Incident Device

or S.Q.U.I.D.

from the inventors website..

Most underwater solutions attempt to hold the pressure using concrete and stiff metal piping. Unlike an oil spill containment dome, the SQUID uses no chemicals in the water, equalizes pressure by allowing the oil to naturally flow to the surface in a contained fashion, and even allows salvaging of that oil for use, rather than burning it off or letting it dissipate across the ocean's surface. This solution uses flexible high strength plastic to capture every drop of oil and is impervious to deep sea currents and low temperatures. It "goes with the flow" of the water.

The scale of the SQUID can be altered, based on the size of the sea floor leak site and depth needed at the rig site. Current prototypes are 48' in diameter, easily assembled on site (sea surface) by divers and tug boats. The ring is delivered hollow; once it is assembled, a heavy agent will fill the inner ring, allowing the ring to sink, while deflating the flotation devices holding the ring above water.

The ring then sinks to cover the leak site, draping the high strength plastic around the leak site, creating a guided flow to the surface. The connection points between the ring and plastic are porous, allowing divers and equipment to flow freely in and out of the shroud, facilitating work to fix the leak or build anew.

The SQUID can be used to control disasters like the one the Gulf of Mexico and British Petroleum are facing right now, or to capture and capitalize on sea floor oil leaks like this that occur naturally all the time.

New World Inventions

Tracy Staedter at Discovery News contacted S.Q.U.I.D. 's creator Steve Dvorak.

I called Dvorak to ask him about his idea, which is so simple and seemingly workable that surely anyone at BP who knows about it must be having a "DUH" moment.

I asked Dvorak about whether the ring and sleeve would suffer from the buildup of the icy methane hydrates, which rendered BP's containment dome a failure.

In short: No.

"The specific gravity of hydrates is a little less than water, so they will continue to rise."

Plus, the sleeve is wide enough that it won't cause a bottleneck. The other advantage to this proposed solution is that it will contain gases and keep the oil from moving toward the coast. And repair operations can go on, such as directing remotely operated subs, while the sleeve is covering the well.

"This is such a low cost option, it seems like why not try it?" said Dvorak.

So far BP has not contacted Dvorak directly about his innovative solution. But they have submitted questions to him via second parties and he said he has "heard from people directly down the food chain from BP saying this is a great idea." And if this solution doesn't get used on the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, it could be used any number of other rigs leaking in the Gulf.

I say let's give SQUID a try!