Hey, it could work

Rico says he sent the put-the-dome-on-the-leaking-Gulf-well story to his friend John Robinson, who works in the 'awl bidness' (as they say in his native New Orleans), and got this reply:

Well, its been done before, in shallow water. ARCO put a dome over a natural seep back in the 90's as a mitigation, in order get an air permit on another activity. The idea was they were saving emissions with the dome, and could apply that 'savings' to another project.
We now know that it didn't work because gas hydrates plugged up the hole in the capture cone. They were successful in getting it over the rupture, but the hydrates prevented them from sucking any oil out of it. (I posted on my blog about hydrates a while ago, with a good video here.) Methanol will break up hydrates. If they run a small diameter pipe down with the bigger oil pipe, they could pump methanol into the box and prevent hydrates. Buy stock in a chemical company, because they will use a lot of methanol!
I wouldn't give up on it just yet. But my next one would have a larger discharge pipe and a plan for methanol injection.

Rico says hide and watch (with crossed fingers, if you like seafood)...