Exxon oil spill facts

On March 24, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska, causing an oil spill and environmental tragedy of epic proportions. Now banned from U.S. seas, it has been renamed the S/R Mediterranean and is seen docked in Fos-Sur-Mer harbour in south France while unloading some 300, 000 a lot of oil might 23, 2000. Photo: Reuters

At 12:04 a.m. on March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in the Prince William Sound from the shore of Alaska. it absolutely was one of the worst oil spills ever sold at the time, dripping nearly 11 million gallons of oil – think 17 Olympic swimming pools’ really worth – into a pristine sea and in the end covering a lot more than 1, 300 kilometers of shoreline covered with black colored, sludgy oil. “We’ve fetched up tough aground, and obviously we’re leaking some oil, ” Exxon Valdez Captain Joseph Hazelwood stated in a recording throughout the crash.

Therefore began the horribly slow response to the spill. More than nine hours after the accident, no recovery equipment or response ships had been sent to begin cleaning up the oil. Once they performed arrive, winds whipping at 70 miles per hour had spread the oil all over the noise. Not really 15 percent regarding the spilled oil had been ultimately recovered. In addition it later appeared that Captain Hazelwood had probably already been drinking – a great deal – ahead of the accident, but he had been cleared of costs of being intoxicated.

Exxon eventually paid about billion, in a variety of fines and damages, however for the residents whose livelihoods and lives had been damaged by the oil spill, the cash couldn’t undo the destruction. In the months following the spill, 1, 000 to 5, 500 ocean otters were killed, along side hundreds of thousands of seabirds and about 300 harbor seals.

An oil-soaked sea bird rests in a towel in a pet relief center as it is covered in oil spilled from Exxon Valdez within March 31, 1989 file picture. Picture: Reuters/Mike Blake

Water lions sleep on a stone within the greasy seas of Prine William Sound near Knight Island, April 2, 1989, following the worst oil spill in U.S. history, due to the Exxon Valdez. Photo: Reuters/Mike Blake

A quarter-century following the spill, of this 28 types of flora and fauna that were hurt, a pod of killer whales, herring and a bird generally pigeon guillemots had nonetheless maybe not recovered, based on the nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Others were deemed in recovery. Today, it’s nevertheless feasible to locate hidden puddles of oil across the Prince William Sound, shown below following the spill in 1989.

On his arms and legs, an associate of clean-up team scrubs the oil-soaked stones on Naked Island within the Prince William Sound, April 2, 1989, as coastline clean efforts within the worst spill in U.S. record started.