Floating weir skimmers use this same trick to suck up the oil floating on the surface of water, except this tube is more than just a cup. It has a tube at the bottom that sucks the oil and oily ...

Yet, over the past 20 years, not much has changed about how oil skimmers work. "(Oil skimming) is a mechanical means of removal, so there’s not a lot of high tech to it,” Popovich said.