If I was a bit closer to the spill, I'd put a couple big trash cans in
my boat and a scoop net and go bag me some tar balls or even some
oil. At $100/bbl it wouldn't take much to pay for a trip. They ought
to put a bounty on it.
All those fishermen could be paid to take their nets and go net some
tar balls. BP could pay em by the volume (actually I'd use some
formula basd on density compared to water to avoid paying for water).
BP would then take the collected oil and send it to the refinery.
Dont laugh too much cuz local fishermen have been collecting
cannonball jellyfish to be dried and sold to the Japanese and I bet
most aged tar balls are less oozy than a jellyfish.