iRobots Survey Oil Damage In Gulf

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Evidence of environmental damage caused in the Gulf of Mexico is obvious. Birds and other wild life are caked in black oil, marshes made reddish black from oil slicks, and black tar balls washing up on beaches from Louisiana to Florida.

Now researchers say underwater oil plumes are endangering the subsurface ecosystem. One University of Georgia researcher says that her team has traced a giant underwater oil plume stretching fifteen miles out from the collapsed well head.

Some of the research of the subsurface oil contamination is depends on technology built by iRobot, the Bedford company best known for its vacuum cleaning robots.

Colin Angle, the CEO of iRobot, joins us to talk about the research and technology.