Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
Shortly after midnight on March 24, 1989, the T/V Exxon Valdez ran
hard aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. In total,
some 10.8 million gallons of North Slope crude oil spilled 
from the stricken vessel. An excellent summary of the spill can be found
at the Exxon
Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council website. The Exxon Valdez oil spill
remains the largest spill ever in U.S. waters, although it has since
dropped from the top 50 largest spills worldwide. The Trustee Council
states that this spill “is widely considered the number one spill
worldwide in terms of damage to the environment, however. The timing
of the spill, the remote and spectacular location, the thousands of
miles of rugged and wild shoreline, and the abundance of wildlife in
the region combined to make it an environmental disaster well beyond
the scope of other spills.”
The Fish and Wildlife Service played a key role in response to this
massive oil spill and trust resources managed by the Service were severely
impacted. More than 35,000 bird carcasses and 1,000 sea otter carcasses
were recovered following the spill. This is estimated to be a small
fraction of the total number killed by the spill, since many carcasses
sink, are consumed by predators, or float out to sea. The best estimate
of total mortality is that 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 250 bald
eagles, and billions of salmon eggs were killed by the oil spill.
The Service actively participates in the Exxon Valdez natural
resource damage assessment and subsequent restoration activities associated
with the civil settlement with Exxon. The EVOS restoration
plan can be found on the Trustee Council website.
