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Diving Into the Oily Gulf; Tar Patties as Long as a Bus; CNN Hero of the Week

Aired July 09, 2010 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello there, everybody. T.J. Holmes here, sitting in for Ali Velshi.

A new hour, a new "Rundown." Let me tell you what we've got "On the Rundown" for you this hour.

Looking at the Gulf of Mexico from the air and from the shore. Now we're going to take you right into the oil in the water itself. We've got a deep sea dive like you've never seen before, something you will only see here. We'll be getting into that this hour.

Also, what does rollerblading have to do with rebuilding quake- ravaged Haiti? A lot if you're the young man featured in our "Mission Possible" today.

Also, you remember there was a time maybe you break up with that special boyfriend or girlfriend. Well, that's what people in Cleveland feel like right now. LeBron left them.

We're talking heartbreak in my "XYZ" today.

But meanwhile, keeping you informed on what's happening.

Now here we are in this oil disaster. We are 80-plus days into this thing now. And on this day, we are trying to give you a look at this oil disaster like you haven't quite seen before.

We have our reporter out there in the Gulf right now, and also the environmentalist Philippe Cousteau, who are going to take a dive in special suits into the water and the oil, if you will. And we are going to bring you a live picture, a live look at it as it happens.

Now, behind me, you're still seeing the live look of that oil gush from the well. Still, some 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day is the estimate. But our reporter is out there, and they're going to give you a live look.

Now, they're just off the coast of Louisiana right now, and about 40, 50 miles or so from actually where the Deepwater Horizon well is. Now, they are going to different rigs right now, abandoned rigs, to do their dive. They have made several attempts so far. Essentially, like our Chad Myers said, they are the needle looking around in that haystack for the oil, because it has made it to some areas close to sure, but, still, they are looking for it particularly. But we are trying to see. The purpose of this is to show you how the dispersants and also this oil is taking an effect on the aquatic life down there. So giving you a scene like you've never seen before.

And again, the picture you are seeing behind me there is our correspondent, Amber Lyon. She is showing that special suit. It's been described almost as a hazmat suit she's going to have to use to go down, because this needs to protect our people from that oil and all that stuff, quite frankly, that's in the water right now. A lot of people are not sure exactly what's in it and how it's having an effect on the marine life, but we're certainly trying to keep our people safe.

Again, a live picture of something that has not been done before. We're going to show that to you.

Meanwhile, we are also keeping an eye on exactly what's happening with that oil well. Thad Allen, who's in charge of the whole oil response, says they're trying to put a different cap, a different kind of seal on top.

So that means they're going to have to remove the one that's on now, put another one on top. It's supposed to be a better seal. It's supposed to be able to siphon up more oil. They expect to have that in place sometime this weekend.

But again, like I said, our reporter, Amber Lyon, is out there right now. We heard from her just a little bit ago. She and, again, Philippe Cousteau out there hunting for oil.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: But this is what we've got here. Above all, we can't see any huge slicks of oil. But the problem is, is it's because we don't know what's underneath the water that makes everyone a little weary, because what we do know is that thousands of gallons of dispersant/crude mix has been pumped into the Gulf.

So, in order to stay safe, we're going to be wearing these hazmat suits. And they are dry suits. So that means when we go under water, we are actually going to be dry in the suit. And what it does is it keeps any type of oil/water combination from getting on our skin and potentially making us ill.

And as I said, it is made of rubber. This is not the most comfortable thing. You get very hot underneath here because you can't get wet. The water can be contaminated.

In addition to this, the suit has got boots attached to it so none of the water can get in by your feet.

And, Philippe, if you can grab me some of those gloves.

We'll also be screwing these plastic gloves right into here. It kind of looks like an astronaut suit, really. And that way, it will protect our hands.

A cool thing about this is that while we're under water, Philippe and I will be able to talk back and forth to each other to tell you what we're seeing. We're going to be able to have communication to do that. And potentially, hopefully, as long as we don't have any technical errors -- we're crossing our fingers, right?

PHILIPPE COUSTEAU, ENVIRONMENTALIST: Listen, that's what it's like out in nature. You've got a lot of variables. So that's the way it goes.

LYON: And so now we're here at this site. It's one of hundreds of abandoned oil rigs. And we're going to leave here and head out to another site that's a little further away from the Mississippi so we can clearly know if we see a film in the water, that that could be a result of the dispersant/oil combination.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Again, we'll continue to keep up with Amber and our crew out there right now.

Meanwhile, in Long Beach, Mississippi, it was just a couple of days ago that they started to see tar patties show up. And one in particular certainly caused alarm out there.

It was a tar patty that was described as being as long and wide as a school bus out there in the water. Now, there might be plenty of those out there, and what happens is they get closer, and they're out there, they start to break up. And that's why we see all these tar balls and these smaller tar patties hit the shore.

Our Ines Ferre is out there on one of those beaches. She's in Long Beach, Mississippi, for us.

Ines, hello to you once again. We heard from that city official a short time ago last hour. They said this is just a part of life now, trying to have to, every day, scoop these things up.

INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. And they're seeing now tar patties that are about a foot wide, T.J. And they're saying that these tar patties, when they see them big out there, they break up as they come to the shore.

And take a look. This is -- they come in and they've got these little tar balls that you see right here. This is what workers have been cleaning up all morning long, one by one, these tar balls.

Now, one of the problems here is that this bay is very shallow water. So, for miles on out -- you could go miles on out, and it's object 10-or-15-deep water.

So, that means that bigger boats or skimmers, let's say, can't get in here because it's just such shallow water. So what they have are some smaller boats that -- what they do is they survey the area, and they've also got these dip nets to take away these -- to pick up these tar balls.

They've got booms out there. The chief of the fire department saying that those booms don't really do much because the water goes right over them. But what they're trying to do is keep this harbor area open.

So they've got these little boats that are running around that are trying to pick up these tar balls, and they want to keep the harbor open because there's people that have boats that lease this area over here, and they just want to make sure that they can keep it as open as possible and keep the beaches as clean as possible -- T.J.

HOLMES: Just one quick question on that attempt to keep the beaches clean. What is that effort like? How often are they coming out? How often a day? How -- I mean, consecutive days?

How often are they having to go out there and having to scoop up stuff off that beach?

FERRE: Yes. Well, they've been coming -- we saw them here today. They've been coming yesterday. Last week, they started seeing tar balls accumulating here.

So, they've been coming every morning and scooping up. And each -- they come on this side of the beach, and then they go on to another side of the beach.

Right now, they seem to have taken a break because they all went into their bus and they left. But they have been, one by one, picking up these little tar balls. And the thing is, is that they want to try and protect the sand. So they want to try and pick them up without picking up as much sand as possible. It's really tedious work -- T.J.

HOLMES: Ines Ferre there for us.

And just one more Gulf Coast beach being affected.

Ines, thank you so much.

And again, a reminder to our viewers. We are going to be bringing you today here on CNN a live look beneath the surface of the Gulf. We have a team that's out there traveling to a spot for a dive to give you, again, a look like you have never seen before. And it's going to be a live look.

Stay with us.

Also, our Chad Myers, who's a diver himself, is going to tell us about the special dangers our crew is going to be encountering.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Welcome back, everybody. Over here with Chad Myers.

We're talking about this dive we are putting together, our correspondent out there with Philippe Cousteau.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

HOLMES: Taking a dive and going to give our viewers a live look --

MYERS: Correct.

HOLMES: -- at this oil and what it's doing to the aquatic life. This is not --

MYERS: Similar pictures Brooke Baldwin had on Rick Sanchez's show weeks ago from Philippe Cousteau. Still pictures.

HOLMES: Still pictures.

MYERS: Still, right. Now we've gone by still pictures. We've purchased the equipment. Now we're going to be under water, broadcasting, showing you exactly what we see in video, not just one still picture here, one still picture here.

HOLMES: And the only live picture to this point we've been seeing is just of the oil gushing, quite frankly.

MYERS: Of course.

HOLMES: But this is a live picture we are going to be able to show you a little different here. But our people -- again, that live picture I'm talking about, that's the only live picture we've been getting from underneath the water.

MYERS: And you know what? This may change in the next few days.

HOLMES: Yes.

MYERS: This is the cap.

HOLMES: This is the cap.

MYERS: See the bottom? This is the bottom of the cap. It kind of looks like the bottom of an old rocket ship. Like, there's another one here you can't even see, another one here that you can't see because there's oil. But these were kind of the fins that were used to help lower the thing down onto the top.

This is called the dynamic seal, which means no seal, which means it moves around. They are going to take this off, put a newer one on that could have a slightly enlarging bladder or some kind of thing that will come down here and get large, and really will make a seal that will not allow all this oil --

HOLMES: They're hope to have that in place maybe sometime this weekend.

MYERS: Correct.

HOLMES: So we'll be standing by for that.

Also, Chad, the dive, though, our team is out there taking, you can't just put on a wetsuit, like normal, throw an oxygen tank on your back and take a dive.

MYERS: You could, but you would get sick.

HOLMES: You'd have a problem.

MYERS: I would think you would get sick. There's enough poison in that water where we're going that you would certainly not put on a neoprene wetsuit, put a regulator in your mouth, put a regular mask on your face, and go dive, because when you're diving, you taste the salt. You know, the regulators in your mouth, you pull it out, you clear the air, whatever it might be.

You can't be doing that when there's poison in the water, literally.

HOLMES: We should remind people, Chad is a diver, by the way. So he knows what he's talking about.

MYERS: I've not done dry suit diving. This is completely a new animal.

I've done BC diving, where you have a vest on, you put a little air in your vest, you wear nine pounds worth of lead on your waste, and you go down very slowly. This is different.

There's air inside this. See how this doesn't really fit her very well? There are folds and creases.

There are 14 different sizes to this dry suit. So we found one that fit here, bought it for her, and now it's on. Right?

But there's air inside. And the danger of putting into a dry suit -- and the reason why you can see her, this is not the ocean. This is a pool. So that's why the water looks so amazingly clean.

HOLMES: She had to go through this training though.

MYERS: This is training. What can happen is that if you are in this position, and you are in this -- I'm going to make it red, so you can -- what can happen is if the air bubbles that are inside, because there is air kind of insulating you because you're not wet, you're dry, if the bubbles go to your feet, you could literally look like this in the water.

Those are your hands, there's your head, and then like this. And then all the bubbles are stuck up here and you can't get out. You're upside down and you're done.

So, to get away from that, you bend your knees, you get all the way down here, and you try to get that air in someplace else. OK? And then you try to get back up again. You also don't want to be going up like a cork, because as you go up like a cork, if you go fast up like a cork, you get bigger because there's not as much compression on your body, and you can go faster and faster and faster, and you pop up like in a submarine trying to get away from another submarine.

HOLMES: That's before we even deal with the dangers and the gunk and the stuff down there they have to deal with.

MYERS: That's what she's gone through to deal with this, just to do this.

HOLMES: Just to get down there.

MYERS: Right. So, there have been weeks for her to get ready to do this.

There she is putting it in there, and she will be strapped into this. Here's her regulator that will go into her mouth. There will be another thing to keep her --

HOLMES: She's covered completely.

MYERS: She'll be completely covered. There will be no oil going into her eyes or her ears, or anywhere here. Basically, you're diving in a toxic soup. Right?

HOLMES: What else do they use these for? I mean, a lot of us not familiar with diving, we see people out there on vacation doing the diving. But these types of suits, what other times would divers be using these?

MYERS: There are other places other than in oceans that you might have to go into toxic substances and do diving, whether it's repair or -- a lot of military repair or industrial repair. Dry suits in general are used when the temperatures are below about 45 in the water.

You can deal with 7 millimeter -- the wetsuit at 50 degrees. You will be cold. Don't get me wrong, you will be cold. But this will allow her to not be cold at all.

And even though the water isn't cold -- the cold's not going through because the water is 80 degrees -- the mixture, the oil, the COREXIT, everything else that's in the water will not go through that. So she will remain safe.

HOLMES: And how heavy is this one? You were telling me earlier.

MYERS: I would say her size, you have to be talking 30 pounds. So she weighs 100, so now she's 130. You put the tank on the back and now you're 150, maybe 160. And you're walking backwards because you have your --- there you go, she's going to have the fins on.

And there's the hazmat suit.

HOLMES: But again, to our viewer, that's a breakdown here from our Chad Myers. But again, we are waiting for crew, Amber Lyon, also with environmentalist Philippe Cousteau. MYERS: Right. It's with Philippe Cousteau.

HOLMES: Philippe Cousteau. They are out there right now searching. They are finding different spots they're diving from one of these abandoned oil rigs --

MYERS: Here's the deal.

HOLMES: You got another picture for me?

MYERS: Here's the deal. I don't know how much time I have left. I'm probably going to kill my producer now, so here we go.

HOLMES: Well, she's going to kill you.

MYERS: Yes, there you go. Exactly.

Here is what we're talking about. They left Venice. They went down the Southwest Pass.

Now they're at this abandoned rig here. And if you go to Google Earth, you can see them.

There are many abandoned things here. But the Deepwater Rig is almost 50 miles away, and the water and the oil has been kind of going back and forth.

They went to this rig thinking -- because yesterday there was oil there. Today there's not. They're going to a different air to see if they can dive there. They cannot go out here and dive because that's off limits. At least NOAA, all those people would be saying let's not do this, let's not go out --

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: Again, that's what they're doing out there, the illustration Chad just made.

Chad, we appreciate that.

MYERS: Sure.

HOLMES: But again, this is going to allow us to give you a live picture, a live feed, as the dive is going on. You'll want to stick around here to CNN for that.

Meanwhile, coming up here, a life-saving mission by a down-home humanitarian. You'll see that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, this week's CNN Hero makes sure critically ill patients with little money to spare get a free ride to the doctor whether by car or even by plane. She's doing it on a wing, a prayer, and a full tank of gas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY BROUSSARD, COMMUNITY CRUSADER: My name is Kathy Broussard. I started the Houston Ground Angels, and we provide free air transportation and free ground transportation for medical patients coming in and out of Houston area.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They had nothing like this down where I live. I would have died a long time ago.

BROUSSARD: There's probably about 300 people volunteering their car, their gas, time. The volunteers, some of them have had cancer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I see them, they give me hope. They'll tell me, "Cathy (ph), stay alive. Stay there with us, fight it." And I've been doing it.

BROUSSARD: God has bypassed me in cancer. And if I could help somebody -- and I'm sorry for crying -- but if I can help somebody make their life a little better, then that's what it's all about. It's not about me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Well, Kathy and the other volunteers have completed about 6,000 air and ground missions since 2001.

To see how one patient's struggles started it all, or to nominate someone you think is changing the world, go to CNNHeroes.com.

Want to take a look now at some of the stories making headlines.

The Navy blimp is on the move today to help in the Gulf oil disaster. It flies from New Orleans to Mobile, Alabama, to survey the site. The goal here is to help cut the time between spotting oil and actually getting the skimmers out there to the scene.

Also, Admiral Thad Allen says a new containment cap could be installed by this weekend.

Also, some debt collectors may be breaking the law as they try to collect on past-due bills. Harassment complaints surged 50 percent last year and could climb higher this year. The Federal Trade Commission says not only are some of their practices inappropriate, could be downright illegal as well.

And a spy swap between the U.S. and Russia now complete. Both countries exchanged the agents on chartered planes at an airport in Austria. The U.S. expelled 10 Russian agents. Russia freed four people who had been jailed for spying for America.

While things heated up, now they're starting to cool down a bit around the country. Where exactly are we talking about the cool-downs happening, if you can call it that?

The forecast, Chad's, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: Well, we're talking about this spy novel, if you will, all the suspense and intrigue. It really is. It's like you're reading some spy novel, and it's actually the real deal, though. This is real life, one of the biggest spy exchanges we have seen in quite some time.

We're checking out the players, we're checking out the game as we go "Globe Trekking" next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Time for today go "Globe Trekking."

And the destination today is Vienna, Austria, what may be the biggest spy swap since the Cold War played out there today. Ten members of the Russian espionage ring operating in American cities were exchanged for four Russians convicted for spying for the U.S. They arrived in Vienna on separate planes, one from Moscow, the other from New York.

Vienna has played a role like this before. The city was the center of cloak and danger intrigue during the Cold War.

At the exchange, the Russian plane returned to Moscow. The four Russians boarded the other plane to Britain. The undercover Russian agents in this country pleaded guilty yesterday. They're acting as unregistered agents and ordered expelled from the country. The other four Russians signed admissions of guilt were granted pardons.

Well, there's been so much intrigue about one particular sport story over the past several days and that was about LeBron James.

Well, don't forget, there's another pretty big sports story going on right now. It's the World Cup and it's almost over. The finale is happening on Sunday. Do you even know who's in it? Do you know? Well, it's Spain and the Netherlands, if you didn't know, if you haven't been watching. But it happens on Sunday.

Now, neither team has won this title before. So, it will be one of their first World Cups no matter what. Now, we're wondering, how in the world we were going to talk about this story today, which angle should we cover. We thought about the history -- Spanish history, Dutch history, or we decided maybe we could talk about La Furia Roja, that's Red Fury, against the Clockwork Oranje, that's the nickname for the Dutch.

So, we thought about possibly, see that guy there. That's David Villa. You might not know him but he is of Spain, he's a big deal. Also, Aryan Robin (ph), he is for the Dutch -- thought about telling you about that.

But what everybody seems to want to talk about right now is Paul. Paul doesn't play for the Dutch. He doesn't play for the Spanish. Paul is an octopus, folks. And that has become a prediction sensation.

Now, this is this creepy, crawly-looking thing here. This nasty little sucker here has been picking the winners so far, hasn't missed one yet. Picks have been correct so far. Some of the picks, however, have not been setting well with everyone. Would you believe some people are actually sending death threats to the octopus?

Well, anyway, the octopus, Paul, has Spain winning this thing on Sunday.

Now, also, in this spirit, we have one of our producers, Sarah, she wanted to make a mention of another animal that's making a prediction. That's called Manny the parakeet, has picked the Netherlands.

All right. Let's look back to the game here for a second now and get past that. South Africa spent well over $1 billion to host this World Cup, expected 400,000 visitors to go see the games. A pretty good show if you haven't been watching, also, you know the term vuvuzela by now. You probably didn't know that before the World Cup started.

Now, it's going to cost billions to maintain now all these new stadiums. So, it's still going to cost them more money down the road. South Korea and Japan, they demolished some of their stadiums after the World Cup.

The U.S. also wants to get back in the World Cup action. The U.S. hosts the World Cup in '94. Brazil won that one. Now, there's a campaign to get it again in possibly 2018 or in 2022. Eighteen cities, including Atlanta, where I stand. And also Miami -- come on, you just got LeBron. Don't be selfish here. They're also on the list.

People are starting to think about this already because the selection committee starts their visits in September. So, it's coming up now. But the next World Cup we'll see is going to be in 2014. That is going to happen in Brazil.

You are caught on all the World Cup action for now.

We're going to catch you up on a young man in just a second who is traveling across the U.S. He's doing it, though, on rollerblades. His mission, though, is to rebuild schools in Haiti. He's got a story for you and it's our "Mission Possible."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Ladies and gentlemen, behind me, we have a picture. This is our test shot. We've been telling you about this live picture and this live reporting. We were going to be able to bring you from below the surface of the water.

So, what you're seeing literally is a live picture. Now, granted, it's a little dark, it's a little grainy, it's a little green, if you will. And you're not seeing much. Now, every once in a while we can see, quite frankly, some marine life go by. But this is our test shot being done right now by our photographer, Rich Brooks, who's down there, also with a dive master. What they're doing now is just setting up the shot for us. And then we're going to send in our correspondent and environmentalist, Philippe Cousteau, who are going to go down and do some live reporting for you from the Gulf.

Now, I'm hearing in the ear and you might be hearing this, too -- they're able to communicate with each other down there. But our photographer went down first to set up this shot for us, to set it up. And this is the test shot.

Now, again, I want to remind you, what you're looking at here and what they're doing here is to give us an idea -- the first time we've been able to get a live picture from below the surface below the water there in the Gulf because they are looking for and finding out how the dispersants and also the oil is having an effect on marine life.

Now, to do this, we have -- quite frankly, have to hooked up some tricky technology to have to use and to try to set up and to get this live picture to you. But we do now have this live picture up. But -- and again, don't be alarmed if you're not seeing much because this is, frankly, a shot -- it's dark, it's grainy. You could imagine what it's like down there. But every once in a while, you will see -- we have seen a few fish, quite frankly, swim by during this picture.

But they are just testing this shot out for us first. Our photographer is down there with a dive master. They're going to make sure everything is OK and they can get everything working from a technical aspect. And then our Amber Lyon, who is our correspondent, and then the environmentalist, Philippe Cousteau, who's also with us, who's been doing a lot of this type of diving but unable to bring you a live picture of it, but this is the first time we'll be able to bring you a live picture of this.

Now, again, we want to remind you that the whole purpose of this is to really give you a different view and to cover this story in a way it hasn't been covered before. These dispersants -- let me hold on one second because they are speaking. Let me see what these guys are talking about down there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But that's pretty much all I can see because of the depth of the water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You sound great, Rich. Right now, seeing you OK and hearing you fine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Just tell me again what you're seeing down there. I'm seeing your picture pretty clean right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, there's a couple of sharks swimming by. They're just curious, coming around to check out what's going on -- you know, maybe four or five-footer, but probably haven't seen too much going on out here lately. So they're just wondering, what the heck is going on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you comfortable right now talking in the mask and everything (INAUDIBLE) right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'm fine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. We're going to get Buck Buchanan down there with you in a second. Hang tight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

HOLMES: Well, I'm not sure how our photographer, Rich Brooks, felt about being told to hang tight while there's a four or five-foot shark swimming by. But you're hearing right now our producer and our photographer, Eric Marrapodi, who is at top, who is at the surface, on the surface of the water right now.

We're, again, testing out this live picture. Now, we're going to be doing some more reporting certainly from down there. But we're just trying to give you a look into what we are doing and what we're setting up. And quite frankly, some of the -- sometimes have a (INAUDIBLE). This is from behind the scenes of us just getting this shot ready for you, to do this reporting.

Now, the search is going on, I should say for this -- and there you go, maybe that's one of the sharks he was speaking of, you can see maybe in the middle of your picture there going by. But, again, this, folks, is live right now. Let me listen in to these guys again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sheen?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's right. Are you seeing any sheen down there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't see any sheen down here. All I see is this particulate matter that's floating through the water column, you know? It doesn't look like it's (INAUDIBLE) stuff for the ocean.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, great. Copy that. Thank you.

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a com check with Buck. Com check for Buck.

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got some big sharks out here. I don't know if everybody's comfortable with sharks in the water.

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rich, do me a favor and try to move that camera for me. I think (INAUDIBLE) up here on the boat. I want to make sure it's just the cable. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the problem?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) just move the camera a little bit for me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not on the camera yet. I'm still on the surface.

(INAUDIBLE)

HOLMES: Again, reminder to our viewers, T.J. Holmes here in the CNN NEWSROOM. And what you are seeing -- now let me go ahead and listen in, but you're listening to our crew setting up a live picture. But that is a live picture below the surface of the water in the Gulf.

You're hearing a correspondence between our Eric Marrapodi, who is our producer up on the surface, and also our photographer, Rich, who is down there diving now.

Let's go ahead and listen in just the interaction between these two guys. I just want to remind you of what you are looking which is a first live below the surface of the water.

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- to 20 feet, 25 feet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got it, 10-4.

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Diver one, safety dive (ph), clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Diver two, camera, clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got you both loud and clear.

(INAUDIBLE)

HOLMES: And again, to our viewers, this is a live picture. This is happening live. This is right now below the surface of the water in the Gulf of Mexico.

Our crew, our photographer, Rich, and also a dive master are below the surface taking out the shot. You're still hearing their voices. We will continue to listen. But I want to remind you exactly what you're looking at.

That green, you can't see much, except for a shark, just like that every now and again going by our crew as they attempt to do this test shot before we send our correspondent and also the environmentalist Philippe Cousteau, who are still at the surface. But this is a test run, but a live picture.

And we're setting all this up and going through this to give you some different reporting, a different kind of view, a different aspect of this whole Gulf oil disaster.

And this is, again, a live picture, this is right now below the surface. They're checking out dispersants and also how the oil is having an effect on the marine life.

Let's go ahead and try to listen in to these guys again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Looking good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Looking good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. (INAUDIBLE) look at the particulate. Look at that stuff. Rich, I'm going to make my way a little deeper. And I'm at maximum depth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rich, (INAUDIBLE) camera. Rich, your shot looks great.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you look over, you can see (INAUDIBLE) the shark.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm getting you guys very clear up here. The shot looks great.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where did you go?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drifted a little bit away from you.

I should be coming into shot now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, how's it looking and sounding, Eric?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys are looking and sounding great. The picture looks amazing. They said it's crystal clear in Atlanta. (INAUDIBLE) doing great, too. So, I'm ready to put in when you are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't believe the amount of stuff that's floating in this water. I've dove this thing for year. I've never seen this matter in the water before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think it is?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It almost looks like fine dust. Maybe a by- product of the dispersants, but it really -- it almost looks like -- it almost looks like your grandmother's pillow when you knock the stuffing out of it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're seeing a little bit of that (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Well, we're going to start making our way back up. You go with that, Rich?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger that. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, coming to the surface.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. We'll be ready.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reel me in there, Andy. Go ahead and float up here. I'm going to take my fins off. Andy, clear me in.

HOLMES: All right. Still sticking with this live picture. It looks like we might have lost the audio from our guys there.

But, again, what you have been seeing for the past several minutes is a live picture, a first in the reporting here, of this Gulf oil disaster, which we are able to now bring you a live picture of what's happening beneath the surface of the water. This is out in the Gulf of Mexico, these pictures coming to us.

We're getting the audio back. Let me see if I want to hang tight here and try to continue to listen in to our guys who are there. But our Rich Brooks is the photojournalist down there, suited up right now with the camera. He is bringing us this live picture right now.

He's been communicating with two people in particular, one, Eric Marrapodi, our producer, who is up on the surface of the water. Also, the dive master who you saw a picture of, I believe that was the dive master who is down there with him.

And you also heard the dive master do some of the reporting for us quite frankly. We have our correspondent who's going to go down here in just a moment -- who are, just shortly, once they get back up. But the dive master saying that he has been diving that area for years and some of the stuff he is seeing in the water is nothing like he has seen before. Not exactly sure what he is seeing. He said it could be possible a byproduct of some of the dispersants used.

Now, that was just his estimation, just initial explanation after going down there. But this is someone who he's been diving those waters for quite some time. An initial impressions to him as soon as he got down there is that he has not seen it like this, had never seen anything like that before and some of the things that are in the water.

Chad Myers, who's also a diver, who is here right next to me, also talking about the visibility down there. It looks it couldn't be any more than 15 feet as he describes, that's why it's very murky there.

But, still, according to our people, a clear picture, a clear signal, I should say, and you have been seeing some of our -- as you see there right in the picture, every once in a while, a shark will go by.

But again, we have set this up. We do have now a live picture we can bring you from the Gulf. That was the test shot -- just showing you a little bit of how this is done and how it's being set up, but really intriguing, fascinating to be able to see now a live picture. And again, like you see there, a couple of sharks will go by every now and again. But this is happening live.

Our correspondent, Amber Lyon, is on standby to go down. She will be going down with the environmentalist Philippe Cousteau. That will be coming up shortly. And we will continue to bring you that live reporting.

Again, a first in this coverage of the oil disaster that we can bring you a live picture from below the surface as we hunt for how this oil and also these dispersants are having an effect on marine life.

Quick break. We are right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: And again, we continue to cover on this day 81 of this oil disaster. We are able to bring you a bit of reporting like you have not seen before. I'm showing you this map here, first of all.

But just off the coast there, you see where it says "abandoned rig" on the left side, that is where we have a crew right now. And from there, from that point, they are going to take a dive down. And what you're seeing now is the first live picture you've been able to see in any reporting, at least.

We have the live picture, of course, of the oil well and the oil gushing into the Gulf. But we are now able to bring you a live picture and our correspondent, Amber Lyon, along with the environmentalist, Philippe Cousteau, are going to go down here shortly and take a dive and we will be able to bring this to you live.

Now, this live picture, our Chad Myers is also a diver, showing -- letting us know the visibility is not very good. But in the middle of your screen there, you can spot that shark. We've seen sharks go by time and again.

Our photographer, Rich there, Rich Brooks, he is the one bringing us this live picture. He is outfitted right now in a special dive suit, a suit that will keep them protected, frankly, from all of the oil, dispersants and whatever else might be out there in the water -- not going to protect you from a shark necessarily. But he described these as being four to five feet long, those sharks you're seeing, but you see the cables also going up, that's going up to surface where our other, again, correspondent is.

This was our test shot. And we were showing you and also letting you listen in to how we set this whole thing up and the correspondence between our photographer who was down there and also our producer up on the surface, got us a clear signal. We're able to hear as well. So, now, our correspondent, as well as the environmentalist, Philippe Cousteau, will go down.

Now, the reason we have gone through this and we have put this together, to bring you a different kind of view and some different kind of reporting. And we're going down to try to find out exactly how -- how these dispersants and also the oil is having an effect on marine life.

There's been all kinds of studies, of course, that are being done and so many scientists involved in this whole process. But we're trying to give you a different kind of view -- a view you haven't seen before. And, in fact, it is at this point a live view.

We also saw just a short time ago, you saw someone who was in one of those specialty suits who went down there and was diving with our photographer. That was the dive master. He is the one who is kind of helping our crew along, kind of leading them, the ins and outs to do this, just kind of a guide out there for them. And we heard him on the audio as well.

His first impression -- his first impression from going down, and he said, this is an area he has been diving for years and years and years, and he said he has never seen stuff in the water like he sees it now -- not exactly sure what that stuff is. But he said it could be a byproduct of some of these chemical dispersant that have been put into the water. You just don't know.

But that is what we are there to discover. How is the stuff affecting the marine life? Again, picture there, again, reminding you exactly what you're looking at, but this is, folks, live. We're able to bring you now a live below the surface of the water in the Gulf.

Continue to stay with us here on CNN for our continued reporting. You're going to see a whole lot more of these live pictures and of this live dive that's going on now. But we have shown you our test shot. Again, this was just a test. But we wanted to bring you in, wanted to show you how we were doing this, and give you the first live pictures we've been able to get in our reporting.

But again, our Amber Lyon, Philippe Cousteau, are getting suited up and they're going to go down and going to give you a view like you have not seen before -- a live view from below the surface of the water. Again, they're just off the coast of Louisiana, is where this picture is coming from. But this is still about 40, maybe 50 miles away from the Deepwater Horizon site where the actual rig explosion took place. So, they have some distance from that, but they are very close to the coast of Louisiana where we know oil has begun to show up for the past several weeks.

So, we will continue to bring you this live picture and our live reporting throughout the day here on CNN. But we just wanted to give you a little insight into what we were doing here, and a little behind the scenes and, yes, a couple of views live of a couple of sharks floating around our crew in the Gulf right now.

We want to hand this thing over to Rick and "THE LIST."

Rick, it's all yours, buddy.