Page 24 - Ocean Shield News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> below? >> i'm sorry. shall shallower. which bluefin can operate. it's capable of conducting all of that search. we're right on the edge of deeper and if in fact we have to go deeper, a second vehicle may be necessary. >> is the u.s. navy waiting for an invitation from the australians? >> the navy has not been asked about what the follow-on task has been. they have "ocean shield" on station. it's conducting and they are getting valuable information on back. at some point "ocean shield" will have to replenish. at that point the australians will look at what the next load-out will be. >> but t...

debris from the aircraft on ocean floor. >> also announcing at that point an oil slick was spotted in the search zone. the source of that oil slick has not been determined. a sample has been taken. it will be tested. let's take you straight to perth, australia, where the search is being coordinated. the decision to launch the bluefin-21 because no pings have been detected for six days. what is the plan for this under water sub? >> reporter: it's going to be gone down on these 24-hour missions. it takes two hours just to get to the bottom. it's almost three miles down. it's going to be hover...

What houston calls an area new to man. the ocean floor here is not sharply mountainous, but it's more flat with rolling hills. there's also a lot of silt on the bottom that can be layered and deep, and as angus houston said today, that could complicate the search for any wreckage. wolf? >> going to be a difficult, difficult process, rene, stand by. i want to go to perth, australia, right now where the air search is getting under way. maybe for one of the last times today. michael holmes is on the scene for us with the very latest. what's going on over there, michael? >> reporter: yeah, wolf,...

To cover the entire search area, so this is a laborious process. you mentioned the oil slick? that was found in the general search area where that australian ship, the "ocean shield" has been towing the ping locator. they've taken a 2-liter sample of that, brought it back here to perth in western australia. it will take a couple of days to analyze it. they're not sure whether it's related or not. and finally, the other headline out of that briefing was that they're probably going to be scaling down the sea and air search for debris, which was taking place several hundred miles further west of ...

>> yes. >> when exactly, are you talking today? >> yeah. >> or tomorrow? >> well, the first tine that is we've got the bluefin 21 and the towed pinger locater hosted on the same ship. "ocean shield." they cannot be operated simultaneously. so the commander on the spot had to decide which device he was going to use in the first instance. and clearly, because there was still the possibility of picking up transmissions, even though we got past the 30-day point, we got those transmissions, probably seems like about ten days ago now. and we wanted to try and get more transmissions. now, the fact th...