>The Persian Gulf has a maximum depth of 90 meters, and an average depth of 50. They can't have done any "at depth" siphoning of any relevance to the GOM there. DWH is at the drop-off, with 1500 meters to the seabed under the site.The deepest regions of the Gulf are at 3000 meters.
If BP stops using dispersants, you can reckon that a lot more of the oil will make it up to the surface, where it could theoretically be siphoned off. But it will move through many layers of current on its way up from a depth of 1500 meters, and the distribution on the surface will vary a lot. In the Persian Gulf, off Saudi Arabia, you have no habitation or vegetation to speak of, and you need to go to Iraq to find marshes. The oil in Saudi Arabia was blown into natural bays, against beaches that are just endless lengths of sand, and could "easily" be siphoned off, compared to what happened in the GOM.
Anyone telling you they have hose and pumps that can work where there are reported deep plumes is lying, and you do need to get the oil much higher up to be able to work it effectively. Which means that BP would have to stop using dispersants, which could be catastrophic for the marshes. But then we're in "difference between catastrophe and disaster" mode now ...
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