Word: valdez
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Twenty years since the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground in southeastern Alaska on March 24, 1989, spreading an 11-million-gallon crude-oil inkblot into Prince William Sound, the formerly pristine coastal waters once again appear clean and untouched...
...which killed hundreds of thousands of shorebirds that made their home in the Sound along with sea otters that choked on the crude. Over the long term, populations of orcas, killer whales, herring and other species would be injured by the accident. (Read "Remembering the Lessons of the 'Exon Valdez...
Here, on Death Marsh, Mandy Lindberg, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Alaska's Auke Bay, turns over a shovel of sand and broken rock to reveal a glistening pool of brackish oil. The crude can be chemically typed to the Exxon Valdez, and more oil can be found beneath the beach at Death Marsh and at a number of islands around the Sound. "I wouldn't have possibly believed the oil would last this long," says Lindberg. "Studying the spill has been a great learning experience, but if we had known in the years...
What scientists like Lindberg know now is that the legacy of the Exxon Valdez is still visible - physically, on the beaches of Prince William Sound and in the animal populations in these sensitive waters that have yet to rebound fully. Using funds from the original spill settlement between Exxon and the state of Alaska, scientists from NOAA have carried out major studies that show oil still remains just beneath the surface in many parts of the Sound - close enough for animals to be affected by it. "The oil may not leak out in quantities that are immediately visible, but that...
...that crude oil - especially when it is spilled in a cold region like southeastern Alaska - lingers in the environment for years. And as long as the oil is there, it can harm the animals that might come into contact with it. Sea otters, for example - the face of the Valdez spill - dig millions of foraging pits in beaches around the Sound, enough to come into contact with oil numerous times. Although the population of sea otters in the area has recovered since the spill, the return has been slow, and researchers suspect the oil might be the reason. "The pattern...