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With an estimated 200,000 gallons a day of oil continuing to leak into the Gulf of Mexico, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said he has decided to take matters into his own hands.

After oil flowed into Barataria Bay, covering at least 12 miles of Louisiana’s marshes, coating the land and two pelican rookeries in crude, Jindal announced that he planned to move ahead with building sand barriers to protect the state’s coastline.

Just two days ago Jindal urged the approval of an emergency permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build more barriers. The Corps of Engineers is still reviewing the idea of sand barriers but hasn’t responded.

Jindal said he was no longer waiting for approval from the Corps of Engineers, according to The Associated Press.

On Saturday, tensions between BP and local authorities came to a boiling point in Jefferson Parish when local officials declared they were going to commandeer 40 boats of fishermen who had signed up to help with the spill but whose boats had since remained idle. They had spotted oil moving past the shoreline beaches through passes into Barataria Bay, which is surrounded by wildlife-rich wetlands.

“BP was not acting quickly enough in getting the skimmers and the booming boats out,” said Thomas Capella, a Jefferson Parish councilman. “If they weren’t going to do it, we’re going to do it ourselves.”

As soon as the boats were prepared, BP stepped in and began working to send the boats out, Capella said. As of Sunday, about 50 boats in the area were working to contain the oil and prevent more from seeping through the passes, he said.

With no signs of the oil spill stopping soon, BP said one of its efforts to slow the leak was no longer working effectively, according to The AP.

A mile-long tube has been used to siphon oil from the well to a ship. But BP spokesman John Curry said on Sunday that it siphoned some 57,120 gallons of oil within the past 24 hours, a sharp drop from the 92,400 gallons of oil a day that the device was sucking up on Friday.

The amount BP has collected in the tube has varied since it was installed last week. The device was siphoning 42,000 gallons of oil a day early that week, but at times Thursday, the siphon was collecting oil at a rate of as much as 210,000 gallons a day.

BP refused to provide day-by-day figures on how much oil the tube was diverting. Curry said the rate is expected to vary widely, in part because it is not just oil but also natural gas that is leaking. On Sunday, for instance, the siphon collected more than 7 million cubic feet of gas.

Because of claims that the oil spill was a manmade failure, the U.S. Department of Justice said it has began gathering information on the matter. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, however, that he would not release information on whether a criminal investigation has been opened.

The department was asked by the head of the Senate’s environmental committee, Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to determine if BP made false or misleading claims about its ability to prevent a serious oil spill, according to the AP.

BP has announced that on Tuesday it would try to shut off the leaking well with a “top kill,” in which cement and mud are pumped into the well. But the process of sealing offshore oil wells with cement has failed many times, the AP determined in an investigation.

On Monday, the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar; and the Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, and six members of a Senate delegation will be in the area. They are to fly over the affected areas and meet with Gov. Jindal and local officials.

In an attempt to connect with the concerns of the local community, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, a native of New Orleans, plans to visit residents of Venice and New Orleans. Jackson grew up in Pontchartrain Park in New Orleans and attended Tulane University.

In Mississippi, an environmental group called Coastal Rivers organized a cleanup of the garbage and debris surrounding Mississippi’s waterways and marshlands. According to The AP, the spokesman for the organization called it “a pre-emptive strike” against the oil spill. They plan to clean as much as they can so there will be less if the oil reaches the marshes in Mississippi.

Campbell Robertson contributed reporting

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I should’ve realized I was getting myself into trouble when the question, “How strong is your stomach?” came up.

Now, I’m not a particularly well-traveled individual so I haven’t been on many airplanes. I considered the occasional flight to the West Coast to be a travel adventure by my no-passport-having standards. So when the Institute’s director, Don Hecker, approached me about going up in a six-seat plane to write a story about the aerial view of the oil spill in the Gulf, my immediate reaction was something close to terror.

I knew this institute would give me the opportunity to do things I’d never done before, but I must have glanced over the “aerial acrobatics” clause in the paperwork. But I’m a journalist. This is not just a job title, but something that defines who I am to an extent. When would I ever have this opportunity again? Never! So I swallowed the lump in my throat, made a mental note to pick up some Dramamine and said, “Sounds great!”

Eight thirty a.m. came faster than it had all week. I was glad that April Buffington would be there taking pictures along with Rodney Hawkins and instructor Mark Raymond on video. I took some comfort in the fact that my fellow passengers were scared too.

The plane itself was much smaller than I’d originally anticipated. “Great,” I thought to myself as I watched the pilot explain how to unlatch the door in case of a crash landing — exactly what you want to hear before going up in one of these.

Two sets of two seats in the back of the small plane faced each other and I was instructed to sit in the seat behind the pilot, which meant I would have to fly backwards. Great. Rodney climbed over the wing and into the co-pilot’s chair while April settled to my left, behind him. Mark sat across from April. After all the equipment and people piled in, there was barely enough room for me to move my legs.

As we strapped in and put on our headsets, April shot me a “good sport” smile and I returned the favor. As we began to taxi toward the runway, I tried to focus on the chatter asking us where we’re going and telling us what runway to use. When we turned onto the runway April and I instinctively grabbed for each other’s hand.

I don’t know about her, but I said a little prayer as “clear for takeoff” rang through my headset and the plane began to gain speed. The takeoff itself wasn’t much different than a commercial flight takeoff except that you can feel every little movement the plane makes. Before we knew it, we were flying over New Orleans headed for the Gulf.

Flying over the city was amazing. We weren’t nearly as high as commercial airlines so all the details that would be lost to altitude were still plainly visible. Dollhouses, toy cars and walking dolls reminded me of The Sims and I began to relax.

The flight was smooth and we were over the town of Venice in no time at all. As we continued to fly south I saw a marsh and the Mississippi River for the first time in my 22 years as a New Yorker. I couldn’t believe the pattern of the islands, dunes and canals that fisherman navigate for fish, crabs and oysters. By the time we began to see evidence of the spill, about 20 miles from the city of Venice, I felt completely at ease. Little did I know that wouldn’t last long.

In all fairness, I’d been forewarned about the sharp turns — or banking — that the pilot was going to do so the multimedia folks could get the shots. Perhaps I underestimated how much you feel in a small plane but when the pilot made that first right bank — my left — I thought my stomach fell out of the bottom of the plane. We began banking to both the left and the right repeatedly before turning to do the same thing while flying in the opposite direction. What seemed like forever to me was probably less than 20 minutes, but by the time we looped around for the second round of banks, I’d requested a barf bag.

The good news is we got great material and I got to see the effects that the oil spill is having on the marshlands. It was definitely an eye opening experience.

The ride back to the airport was spent with my eyes closed, attempting to find my equilibrium again. Luckily, even the pilot was impressed with the smooth landing we made. By the time we got out of the plane and back into the car we were all a little sick, but very excited.

Lesson of the day, fear can hold you back from doing things that may actually turn out to be life-changing experiences. And always have a barf bag handy.

An earlier version of this article gave an incorrect last name for April Buffington.

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The only bird I can name off the top of my head is a pigeon. In my defense, I am from New York City where most wildlife is viewed from a safe distance in one of our zoos. So when some sort of animal that isn’t someone’s pet gets too close to me, I get suspicious of its intentions and a “freak-out” is imminent.

So imagine my horror when one of my Institute colleagues, Rodney Hawkins, opened the door of the small plane we’d just chartered to fly over the Gulf oil spill and a small grey bird flew into the cabin. First reaction: panic. Second reaction: hostility quickly replaced by horror. Again in my defense, I’ve never seen a wild bird want to be near people. Usually if a bird accidentally flies into a building or car I’ve been in, its immediate reaction is to try and get out. Not this bird.

As the panic began to run through me I thought of the movie “The Birds” and ducked my head as I’d seen the people in the movie do. Apparently this was interpreted as “Land here”:The next thing I knew the bird was standing on the nape of my neck. As I stood frozen in shock and horror, the pilot moodily told me to get out of the plane, probably afraid I’d break something in my panic.

When I moved to open the door, the bird jumped up on my head. At the sensation of tiny bird feet on my scalp, the freak-out ensued. I jumped out of the plane and the bird found its next victim, my fellow passenger April Buffington. The bird remained perched on April until she got out of the plane too.

I was standing less than 10 feet from where the bird caught its breath on the ground and as I met its beady little eyes, it made a bee line — or bird line in this case — straight for me. Using some expert evasive maneuvers, I was able to evade my attacker briefly. But like a bull with a matador, the bird made another attempt to land on me, but was again thwarted by my quick maneuvering.

Bored with me, the bird then attempted to land on the back of our faculty videographer, Mark Raymond, as he ran toward to the hangar. Finally, after all its efforts, the bird found the perfect perch: atop the pilot’s head. Happy ending for the bird, traumatic experience for me.

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Sean Randall is a frequent visitor to Zimmer’s, a popular New Orleans seafood market. In the weeks since a BP-operated oil–drilling platform exploded and began spilling massive quantities of oil into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, Randall said she has been buying seafood 2 pounds at a time. She believed there’s not much time left before all the local seafood will be contaminated and she won’t be able to make any purchases.

“I just don’t know what New Orleans will be without seafood,” she said.

Surprisingly, despite bans on fishing off the coast and well-publicized closing of some of the state’s oyster beds, many businesses and local restaurants that specialize in seafood said they have yet to feel the effects of the oil spill.

Ti Martin, co-proprietor of Commander’s Palace in New Orleans’ Garden District, said the restaurant’s prices have not yet been affected. As far as access to shrimp, crab, and oysters, there’s plenty.

If a shortage should come, Martin says she’s prepared to roll with any changes. “There’s an old Cajun saying,” she said “Whatever crawls across the yard, we’ll cook it.”

Martin said she is not fearful of the oyster beds closing, although she said she is concerned that customer’s perception of the spill will slow traffic to Commander’s Palace.

But Charlene Zimmer, owner of Zimmer’s, said that a 15 percent increase in cost has already caused her to worry about the future of her establishment. If the situation worsens, it could bring increasing costs for seafood distributers like herself and a rise in distribution could potentially trickle down to restaurant owners and into the laps of their dining guests. Zimmer said the changes in price for fresh shrimp and oysters have caused her to rethink her already set price tags.

The seafood industry is Louisiana’s largest private-sector employer, according to the Louisiana Restaurant Association. Louisiana’s commercial fishing industry produces 25 percent of all the seafood in America and contributes $ 4.8 billion annually to the state’s economy, the association said.

Oyster lover Lamar Ellis is worried about the safety of the oyster beds and disagrees with the way BP is handling the spill. “I have a lot to be concerned about,” said Ellis, who said he eats oysters weekly.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospital said it is conducting hydrocarbon testing to monitor the presence of oil in local oyster meat. This, along with the continued testing of the 8 million acres of shoreline, will determine the safety of the oyster beds.

Oil contains harmful chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that can cause harm if ingested in large quantities, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a federal public health agency based in Atlanta. BP’s method of breaking up the slick with the use of toxic dispersants also raised questions about the long-term effects the chemicals will have on the quality of the seafood. The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered BP to restock with a dispersant that meets a lower toxicity level, though BP Is arguing that its current dispersant is the most effective. Cleanup from the spill is expected to last years and even decades, said the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

“It’s unacceptable knowing that we’re the No. 1 producer of offshore oil and that we’re not prepared for this,” said Sal Sunseri, co owner of PJ’s Oysters Co., which says it is the largest distributor of oysters in the U.S. “We’re not about to allow this black tide to overcome our livelihood. We’re a resilient people and are determined for the government to clean up this mess.”

Founded in 1876, PJ’s family-run business is in the French Quarter. Sunseri said he distributes oysters to over 100 companies and that the spill has caused a nominal increase in cost. His biggest concern is the government’s lack of control over the situation.

“It’s not just the fisheries that will suffer,” he said. “Our entire economy would be devastated if the worst scenario were to come into reality.”

Sunseri said he hopes that the leak will be capped soon because he’s made an investment in preparing for the first-ever oyster festival in New Orleans, scheduled for June 5 and 6 in the parking lot next to the old Jackson Brewery, at the edge of the French Quarter. Eighteen of the city’s top restaurants will attend, each bringing a different oyster dish. The crowd can anticipate plenty of New Orleans jazz and over 50,000 pounds of oysters, Sunseri said. First planned for 2006, the festival had to be canceled because of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

But Sunseri said this new disaster won’t change his oyster shucking plans. If Gulf beds can’t provide the oysters he needs, he said, he’s prepared to cross the border to Texas.

“Were celebrating the oyster farmers and chefs that have created the oyster capital of America,” Sunseri said. “Nothing is going to stop this festival.”

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In an aerial view, oil pools in the marshlandsoutside of Venice, La. (April Buffington/NYT Institute)

To the untrained eye, the effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on the marshlands of Southern Louisiana might not be easily recognizable from the air. But one look at the oil-stained sand dunes about 20 miles from Venice, La., and the reality of the ever-encroaching oil becomes apparent.

From the air, an intricate pattern of water, marshland and sand dunes stretches as far as the eye can see from the town of Venice to the Gulf. Dark blue water snakes through the maze-like wetlands, some areas covered with a layer of avocado-colored foam, as the muddy Mississippi River escorts barges loaded with containers to shipping points in the North.

Not far from Venice, the mixing of freshwater with saltwater from the Gulf creates a line of juxtaposition reminiscent of a yin and yang sign — tan, muddy freshwater giving way to blue-green saltwater. Discerning what is oil and what is the natural process of these waters converging can be difficult.

But a closer look toward the peppered masses of land shows just how easily identifiable the oil is. Syrupy swirls of black weave into the natural canals and lap against sand dunes, as white and orange booms attempt to isolate them. Some islands look like more oil than sand, something close to a cinnamon swirl pastry.

Miles of white containment boom have been stretched around islands and peninsulas, some with evidence of oil. Boats of all shapes and sizes meander through open water while smaller speedboats stay close to the booms. While the booms out in open water are either white or black, orange booms can be seen almost flush against the sand.

Many fear that the hundreds of birds, turtles and other wildlife that call the marsh home are in danger as their natural habitat is contaminated. Those who rely on the supply of fish, crab and oysters that are harvested from these waters are also concerned with the effect on the local seafood industry, a vital part of the local economy.

As new efforts to stop the leak and contain the damage continue to be explored, for now, residents simply watch and wait.

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President Obama announced on Saturday that he is establishing a commission to investigate the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill. A former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, William Reilly, and Bob Graham, a former Florida governor and Democratic U.S. senator, will head the seven-person commission, Obama said.

“We need to take a comprehensive look at how the oil and gas industry operates and how we regulate them,” Obama said during his weekly address. “The purpose of this commission is to consider both the root causes of the disaster and offer options on what safety and environmental precautions we need to take to prevent a similar disaster from happening again.”

As an estimated more than 200,000 gallons of oil a day continued to spew into the Gulf, BP said on Saturday that it wants to keep using a particular chemical dispersant to fight the oil spill, despite orders from the Environmental Protection Agency to use something less toxic.

The chemical, Corexit 9500, is “the best option for subsea application,” BP’s chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, said in a letter to the EPA, according to The Associated Press. Tests showed Corexit was among the most effective agents at dispersing the oil, Suttles said.

The EPA raised concerns about the chemical on Thursday, saying the long-term effects remain unknown. The agency ordered BP to identify an alternative and start using it within three days of its approval by regulators.

BP found five products that met the EPA’s criteria, and said that Corexit appears to have fewer long-term effects. There were also not enough of the other chemicals immediately available to fight the huge spill, Suttles said.

EPA officials did not immediately respond Saturday to questions about BP’s decision.

The oil spill started on April 20 after BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded off the Louisiana coast, killing 11 workers. A blowout preventer, which is supposed to shut off the oil in case of an accident, failed. An underwater pipe ruptured and more than 6 million gallons of oil have leaked into the Gulf, according to many scientists’ estimates.

“This catastrophe is unprecedented in its nature and it presents a host of new challenges we are working to address,” Obama said in establishing the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. “But the question is what lessons we can learn from this disaster to make sure it never happens again.” He added, “I want to know what worked and what didn’t work in our response to the disaster, and where oversight of the oil and gas industry broke down.”

By law, BP is required to clean up the spill. Though the company has made several attempts to stem the flow of oil, including plugging the blowout preventer with knotted rope and tires, none of them have worked. The company’s most recent solution is to cap the well using drilling mud, a process known as “top kill.” The company first said that it would start the process on Sunday. But on Saturday company spokesmen said that the earliest the process could start is Tuesday.

BP’s chief executive, Tony Hayward, remained cautious about the latest attempt, saying that this “would be another first for this technology at these water depths, and so we cannot take its success for granted.”

While initiatives continued to stop the oil flow and clean up the results, efforts were also under way to help people who have already been hurt. The Greater New Orleans Foundation said it would donate $50,000 to the Seedco Southeast Louisiana Fisheries Assistance Center, which provides assistance to commercial fishermen including private and public resources, business support services, job training, counselors and financial help.

Lesia Bates Moss, president of Seedco Financial, the umbrella group over the Fisheries Assistance Center, said the group intended to use the funds “to provide extended services to the fishermen as well as to their families; helping them to identify other resources that could help during this difficult time.” She added, “The small businesses we serve are important to the U.S. economy.”

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The Louisiana Children’s Museum is opening its massive blue doors to families who have been affected by the oil spill along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

Residents of Lafourche, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and Terrebonne parishes are able to participate in a “Family Fun Day” free on Saturday and Sunday at the museum in New Orleans.

Inside, children can participate in the many hands-on exhibits and galleries that include batting cages, rope climbing, an “art trek” with painting and crafts and a majestic rocking house made of old boxes.

Just up the rainbow-colored stairs is a city planning exhibit and a mock Winn-Dixie store where children can shop and check out their own “groceries.”

Julia Webb Bland, executive director of the museum, said that in times of crisis the importance of family interaction and the emotional health of children is very important, but that the children aren’t the only ones who benefit from events like Family Fun Day.

“Parents are stressed,” said Bland. “The children pick up on this energy and become stressed themselves. It can actually relieve the parents to see their children playing.”

She also says the nature of the oil spill makes residents unsure of when the problem will be over.

“It’s like a slow-moving hurricane,” she said. “We know it’s coming, but we don’t know what the extent of the damage will be.”

Tammi Menard brought her young granddaughter and grandson to the museum from St. Bernard Parish, which was heavily affected by the oil spill.

She said the event at the museum was “awesome” because children in her area don’t have access to recreation with the spill rendering their parents unable to work.

“Kids want to go places and do things,” she said. “Most people couldn’t even afford the gas to come here today, and there’s no transportation on the weekend to load them up and bring them here.”

She said the Family Fun Day was a chance for people in the affected parishes to take their minds off the current struggle.

“There are some people who just need to get out,” she said. “My family couldn’t usually afford to get out and do this.”

The museum wanted to offer a reprieve for parish residents while ensuring their mental stability. About 20 families took advantage of the offer on Saturday, but more were expected for Sunday.

Valerie Wajda-Johnston, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Tulane University and resident child psychologist at the museum, was on hand Saturday to help families cope with stress brought on by the oil spill.

Wajda-Johnston said when disaster happens it’s very important for parents to communicate with children at the child’s level of understanding. She suggested encouraging children to ask questions about the issue and answering them with facts.

She said that parents should be honest about what they are feeling with the children but to always reassure them that they will be taken care of.

Wajda-Johnston said the psychological well-being of people in ordeals like the oil spill is undervalued and as the oil spill continues, stress will be more of a problem.

“I’m not sure anyone realizes the stress that is going to be the fallout from this incident, much less how the children are going to see that,” Wajda-Johnston said.

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This is an update of an earlier article.

For the past month, Laura Underwood, a hair stylist in Houma, La., has swept the floor of the Aha! salon, gathering hair clippings and stuffing them into grocery bags. She also asked other salons for their leftover hair but under one condition—that they wash it first. Before long, the back of her SUV was filled with bags of hair, making it hard to see out of her back window.

A Matter of Trust volunteer at the Destin, Fla., warehouse packing hair and fur donated from around the world into nylon pantyhose. The organization is hoping these hair booms will be used to aid the Gulf Coast oil spill. (Lisa Gautier/Matter of Trust)

Underwood, an environmental activist, is gathering hair clippings for hair booms. She understood that the nylons packed with hair and fur would be used to clean up the most recent oil spill. Matter of Trust, the organization that initiated the hair craze, is encouraging donors like Underwood to drop off the hair and fur that donors would otherwise dispose of.

“I love to clean up,” said Underwood. “I think they rely on modern technology too much, and sometimes they need to step back and see that nature works better.”

Underwood, who also works for animal rescue, discovered Matter of Trust while visiting Internet sites for ideas on ways to help the oil spill relief efforts. Being a hairstylist, she jumped at the opportunity to donate hair and wrote to other activists about the plan.

“I just wrote on all of my Facebook friends’ walls, and before I knew it, some guy from California was contacting me about shaving his sheep and sending me the fur,” she said.

Since this campaign began in April, Matter of Trust has received similar responses. As of May 5, the organization said it had received over 400,000 pounds of hair and fur.

It has been unable to update these numbers because of the overwhelming response, said Lisa Gautier, president of Matter of Trust.

“It is pouring in now from all over North America and beyond,” Gautier said in an e-mail interview. “And we weren’t counting on the alpaca farms—we have to do a new tally.”

According to Gautier, the 35,000 participating salons each cut about one pound of hair per day and dog groomers cut three to five pounds per day. In addition to this, classrooms, scouting troops and plenty of individuals are donating their own hair.

“It goes on and on,” Gautier said. “There is so much hair.”

Matter of Trust has been storing the hair donated in 19 warehouses along the Gulf Coast preparing for the word from local hazardous materials teams that the hair was needed. They might be waiting longer than they anticipated, though, after the latest announcement by the Deepwater Horizon Response Team. The team said on Friday that it was no longer considering hair booms as an option to soak up the oil.

“Our priority when cleaning up an oil spill is to find the most efficient and expedient way to remove the oil from the affected area while causing no additional damage,” said Charlie Henry, NOAA’s Scientific Support Coordinator in Robert, La. Hair booms were used in a field test in Texas, but, “One problem with the hair boom is that it became waterlogged and sank within a short period of time,” Henry said. It also did not collect as much oil as commercial booms.

The Deepwater Horizon Response Team and BP have ruled out the use of hair booms, but they do encourage suggestions for more cleanup solutions.

“As of yesterday there were 77,000 calls made to the call center and 21,000 e-mails,” a BP spokesman, John Curry, said. “Clearly there are lots of people that want to provide ideas; maybe that’s how this thing started, but I don’t know.”

Curry also stressed that it was not BP’s decision to reject the idea of the hair booms but was the call of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Although it seems this entire project has been a waste of time, Gautier believes it will work out.

“The county hazmat teams are mad and contacting us,” she said, though she would not say which authorities she had been in touch with. “We are lovers, not fighters. This is a good karma program; it will all work out as it should. It’s a Matter of Trust.”

Underwood is also not discouraged and still believes that the hair booms are a good idea. She says that public pressure has helped in situations like this before and it might again. She is still encouraging her clients to continue gathering their trimmings and is even looking for customers to shed a bit more for the cause.

“People shave their head for cancer every day,” she said. “So why not for the earth?”

Rosa Warren contributed reporting

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This is an update of an earlier article.

Since late April, salons in different parts of the country have been gathering excess hair from haircuts in hopes it would be used to clean up the oil spill. But even though the idea was rejected on Friday by the people in charge of all response efforts, neither the salons nor the organization that started the initiative are letting up.

The plan was proposed by the San Francisco-based organization Matter of Trust, which calls for donations of hair and fur that are placed in nylon stockings and then used as booms to soak up the oil. According to the organization’s president, Lisa Gautier, the group has donors from all over the world and sends each donation to one of 19 warehouses along the Gulf Coast whose use has been donated to the organization.

As of May 5, the organization had collected more than 400,000 pounds of hair. She said the group has not been able to update the count because the donations won’t stop pouring in.

“The world is so full of generous people,” Lisa Gautier said in an e-mail interview. “This is proof.”

Despite the efforts of Matter of Trust, the Unified Area Command for the Deepwater Horizon/BP Response, in charge of coordinating the cleanup, announced Friday that while this suggestion was submitted to BP as an option for containing the oil spill, it was not considered feasible.

The command cited a February 2010 side-by-side field test conducted during an oil spill in Texas, in which a boom with commercial absorbents picked up more oil and much less water than a hair boom, “making it the better operational choice.”

“Our priority when cleaning up an oil spill is to find the most efficient and expedient way to remove the oil from the affected area while causing no additional damage,” said Charlie Henry, NOAA’s Scientific Support Coordinator in Robert, La. “One problem with the hair boom is that it became waterlogged and sank within a short period of time.”

In Louisiana, hair has been collected by many salons and dropped in locations for Matter of Trust. Lauren Underwood, a stylist at Aha! Salon in Houma, said the effort has attracted considerable support in her town. She said she has collected two SUV trunks full of hair thus far and has no intention of stopping.

“I was under the impression that BP was already using our booms to pick up the oil,” she said. “The other booms don’t work as well and are not as environmentally friendly.”

But there has been no confirmation from government officials or BP representatives that donated hair has been used in any cleanup efforts. And the disaster response command said on Friday that it was asking individuals and organizations to discontinue the collection of hair for use in hair booms.

Gautier said her group will continue to collect hair from salons and that the hair collected is staying in their warehouses for now. She said she had arrangements to provide it to local cleanup teams in the Gulf area, but that may be on hold given Friday’s announcement.

“We are lovers not fighters,” Gautier said. “This is a good karma program. It will work out as it should.”

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