Exxon Valdez

On March 24, 1989, an oil leak from the Exxon Valdez occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska. At 12:04 a.m., the Exxon Valdez, an oil supertanker owned by Exxon Shipping Company and headed for Long Beach, California, collided with the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) west of Tatitlek, Alaska. Over the course of the following few days, 10.8 million US

11 million gallons of oil spilled into the ocean when the ship's hull was split through by the crash. It was the greatest single oil leak in US seas up to that point. Initial efforts to control the spill were unsuccessful. The oil slick expanded in the months that followed. A total of 1,300 kilometers of coastline were impacted. Later investigations revealed that Exxon Valdez captain Joseph Hazelwood had been drinking prior to the crash and had handed the helm to an unauthorized third-party mate.

An estimated 250,000 seabirds, 300 seals, 250 bald eagles, and 22 killer whales perished as a result of the incident. Sea otters were badly impacted, with an estimated 3,000 fatalities or 40% of the population in the Sound dying. 25 years after the occurrence, the sea otter population didn't entirely recover until 2014! Additionally, other sources have the overall economic loss at roughly $2.8 billion, and thirty years later, there are still isolated pockets of crude oil in some places.

When: 1989
Where: Alaska
Oil spilt: 11 million gallons