SAINT PETERSBURG

Port of St. Petersburg

Six days ago, President Barack Obama said the fight to stop the oil leak is "finally close to coming to an end." Six days ago, BP announced a "significant milestone" after drilling mud into the well that held back the flow of crude oil, a process called "static kill".

But Wednesday, Greenpeace launched from the Port of St. Petersburg to embark on a three-month long expedition to investigate the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in search of answers coming from someone other than BP or the government.

A 50-meter long icebreaking ship known as the Artic Sunrise will house the crew of researchers, marine biologists, environmentalists and activists. Their hope is to conduct an investigation of the spill through research and through independent study to perhaps find something that was missed in the clear-the-oil shuffle.

"What do I expect? I honestly don't know. Going back into very recent history, what BP will try and do to the science that we do, we'll see. We've got independent scientists on board, we're an independent organization and we'll go out and do what we need to do," said Dan Howells, Greenpeace USA Deputy Campaigns Director.

This article appears in Aug 5-11, 2010.