What is the TRUE coverage of the oil spill? Is it being covered up?

Hi all,

I'm a little confused as to the actual coverage of the oil spil..

Just exactly how far does the oil spread? What is the exact area that is currently in trouble?

I'm asking this for a specific reason..
Right now (at time of posting) there is a report on ABC news about how the "Yanks slam BP" and there is a picture of Obama sat in front of a map.

This map appears to show a massive black area, a thin lines of blue sea in places and then the land. Is this a real map or a predictive one? If it is predictive, then what do they know? If it is a real time map then we are not getting the full news on what's going on in comparison to other places that I have just looked at..

Here is the pic of Obama with the map behind him.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/900dba571a81.jpg[/atsimg]
The headline links to this story;

A federal panel probing the rate of the oil flow has revealed that the size of the spill is far bigger than previous estimates. While the earlier worst-case scenario pegged the spill at 42 million gallons, the new numbers mean that up to 89 million gallons could have spewed into the ocean already, eight times the size of the Exxon-Valdez disaster.

abcnews.go.com...

Now, comparing the picture behind Obama to other data there does seem to be a bit of a difference, as fas as I can tell.
Check these links to see what I mean;
gcoos.tamu.edu...
response.restoration.noaa.gov...
www.esl.lsu.edu...
www.esl.lsu.edu...

And just to top it off, you can find a whole host of links in relation here;
gulfseagrant.tamu.edu...
gcoos.tamu.edu...

And a set of photos I've not seen before.. The pic of the Dolphins is saddening;
www.boston.com...

But can anyone explain the picture that is behind Obama or am I looking at the picture and getting its scale confused?



[edit on 12-6-2010 by Extralien]

Have been looking at the oil ticker, which gives an estimate on just how much oil is leaking...

And, to be honest, I don't think anyone really knows. If anyone does then they are surely keeping quiet.

Here's the link to see the ticker if you can't find it anywhere else on ATS, but many other sites are now starting to use this ticker for their reports.
www.pbs.org...