[Richard Lui, Cnn Anchor:] OK. We're at the top of the hour. And here is a brief look at the headlines for you. Crews trying to divert the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico may be making some progress. But the gunk that is already in the water continues to spread. We're watching that. And President Obama made it official today, he'll nominate Retired Air Force General James Clapper to be the new director of National Intelligence. Plus, Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga says everybody makes mistakes. He talks with us about the blown call that cost him the perfect game. We'll have highlights of that interview later this hour for you. But first off, the oil disaster, the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico is still spreading. But the latest attempt to control new oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico is about one-third successful so far. BP says it is diverting about 30 percent of that oil to a ship on the surface and that they hope to step up that percentage gradually.
[Bob Fryar, Bp Senior Vice President:] As you know from the beginning of this, our goal has been very clear. We have had three areas we have been fighting. The subsea, offshore, and at the shoreline. This morning Admiral Allen shared with you exactly how the operation is going subsea. He talked about the cap that we put on to the LMRP. That operation has gone extremely well. Over the last 24 hours, we have been able to collect over 6,000 barrels of oil. So we're very pleased with that operation.
[Lui:] Yet the oil still flows as you can see. Less than a year ago, marine scientists working in the gulf rejoiced when they discovered a previously unknown coral reef. This was a huge find, a reef is big and beautiful as any in the world. Push forward nine months to today and that celebration turns to dread as the same scientists watch BP's oil spread. Richard Charter from the Defenders of Wildlife joins us right now from San Francisco, California. You've done research on this. You've been a senior policy adviser for marine programs on this very issue. Richard, first of all, a lot of people don't know there is a coral reef in the Gulf of Mexico. When was that discovered?
[Richard Charter, Defenders Of Wildlife:] Well, there are many coral reefs in the Gulf of Mexico. Some of them are subsea and some of them are actually reefs that comprise parts of the Florida keys. And coral reefs are home to more kinds of life than any other ecosystem on earth, including the rain forest. And they absolutely depend on clean, clear, nutrient-free water.
[Lui:] And most of these were found well, one was found nine months ago. But you're telling me there is much more than this one big find.
[Charter:] This is a very critical habitat throughout the Gulf of Mexico. It is not everywhere, but the places where it is located is an extremely important habitat. Coral is a living animal that grows very slowly over geologic time. Typically half an inch a year. And coral reefs are the only living environments on the planet you can see from space. They serve as a habitat for much of the marine life in the ocean.
[Lui:] Richard, I'm going to get into the oil and the "Discover" by the University of South Florida, according to them, there is an underwater plumes. But how large are these reefs?
[Charter:] Well, if you consider the third largest barrier reef in the world really compromises a large part of the Florida keys. Now, we don't know that these plumes under water or even the surface slick yet are going to travel as far as the Florida keys, but there are certainly possibilities that it could. If that happens, the danger of the underwater plumes if they're proven to exist, probably now been measured about six feet, six miles long, if one of those comes into the keys at night, for example, under water, undetected, it could kill sea grass beds, it could kill mangroves without anybody knowing about it until everything started to die. Those are part of the reef system.
[Lui:] Are these, when we compare coral reefs to the marshlands, the estuaries that are clearly seen on the surfaces all around the gulf coast, are the coral reefs more important?
[Charter:] Well, everything is important in the ocean, obviously. This is all a food chain upon which we depend as human beings. And many other animals as we're seeing also depend on these ecosystems. The problem with coral reefs is they are very sensitive. There have even been indications that coral reefs can be damaged by a slight sheen of suntan oil on the surface of the water. They're that sensitive. So very low concentrations of pollution can damage coral reefs. They're certainly like the canaries and the coal mine of the ocean.
[Lui:] Yes and one of the discussion issues was as the dispersants were applied to the oil, that some of the oil may fall to the bottom of the ocean, therefore affecting those coral reefs. Let me think on the other side of this. How might we protect the coral reefs? What can be done?
[Charter:] Well, this whole incident has now grown to such a scale that our efforts as human beings are really small in comparison to the size of the event. If there are, in fact, subsea plumes now moving on the currents throughout the gulf, we can't track them from satellites. There are ways to track them, but they're very complicated. And so booms don't work. And we think some of the oil that has come ashore has come under the booms.
[Lui:] All right. Richard Charter, Defenders of Wildlife, I guess you're a diver? Are you a diver?
[Charter:] I am not a diver but I have studied this for 30 years.
[Lui:] That counts for a lot. I'm a little bit of a diver and certainly those reefs are beautiful. Your concern, of course, is protecting all of those. Thank you so much, Richard Charter, Defenders of Wildlife. We head on over to the surface, if you will, where CNN's Ed Lavandera has been on the story from the beginning. He's been looking at the issues including dispersants that we were just discussing and how they may affect this floating oil and how it might sink it, maybe. He's right now in New Orleans for us with the very latest. Hey, how is it going there, Ed?
[Ed Lavandera, Cnn Correspondent:] Hey, Richard. Right now, we're taking a close look at the containment effort that BP is in the process of doing, putting that containment cap on top of the blowout preventer where so much of that oil is spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. As you see the live pictures coming from the bottom of the ocean there, that containment cap has been put in place, but it is not completely sealed up and they have not closed off the valve. That's why you see so much of that oil still spewing out from it. BP says in the first 24 hours of this containment process they were able to capture 250,000 gallons of oil, which is about 6,000 barrels. Still a small fraction of the amount of oil spewing into that, but they want to close down those valves and those vents on the sides of that containment cap and they hope over the course of the next 24 to 48 hours that they will continue capturing more of that oil. Of course, this is not a long-term solution to killing off this well, but so far BP says that this containment effort is going in their words, "extremely well." But regardless, even if it does work as good as they think it might, this would only capture about or could capture up to 90 percent of the oil spewing from that oil leak there at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. In the meantime, the concern here is clearly about the environmental impact and as we have seen over the last few days is that oil and globs of oil and tar balls creeping along the shore from Mississippi to Alabama, now we're seeing it in Pensacola, and Admiral Thad Allen of the Coast Guard says he anticipates this eastward trend to continue.
[Adm. Thad Allen, National Incident Commander:] We're starting to see a product actually come ashore in the form of tar balls, small oil patties and mats, if you will. And the impact is from western Mississippi over towards Pensacola. The oil generally starts to move north and slightly east. So the area we're concerned about is basically from the Mississippi, Louisiana line to Port St. Joe in Florida.
[Lavandera:] And Richard, of course, all eyes basically on how all of this will eventually come to an end and the best we can say is that we're really looking at a time frame of August before this well is successfully killed off for good. Those relief wells as they're doing these containment efforts, and that sort of thing. There are other teams that are drilling these relief wells alongside of where this oil leak is occurring at the bottom of the ocean floor. But they need to go about 16 to 18,000 feet below that surface of the ocean there. And they're only about 7,000 feet of the way there. Richard.
[Lui:] And, Ed, they know that will work, at least from previous experiences when they look at [inaudible] from 1979, another huge leak. In the meantime, as you were telling us, solution number four, that cap is working, it appears, at least somewhat right now. Ed Lavandera, thank you so much live there in Louisiana since the beginning on this very story. The effects of the oil disaster, they aren't confined to the gulf coast, though. We got seafood lovers everywhere that may be feeling the pinch. Also, the president names his choice for the National Intelligence director. Jeanne Meserve has that.
[Jeanne Meserve, Cnn Homeland Security Correspondent:] James Clapper and he's been picked in the face of congressional opposition. We'll have that story after the break.