The Exxon Valdez Spills Oil into Prince William Sound

Shortly after midnight on March 24, 1989, the oil supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound. The ship, owned by Exxon Shipping Company, had departed the Valdez Marine Terminal carrying more than 53 million gallons of crude oil bound for Long Beach, California. To steer clear of small icebergs calved from the nearby Columbia Glacier, the tanker had maneuvered out of its standard outbound lane. Captain Joseph Hazelwood left the navigation bridge after setting a southerly course, leaving Third Mate Gregory Cousins in charge alongside an able seaman at the helm. Investigators later concluded that Cousins, the only officer on the bridge, was likely affected by fatigue and an excessive workload. When he attempted to return the ship to the proper traffic lanes, it struck the reef, puncturing eight of its eleven cargo holds.

The puncture released an estimated 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into the surrounding waters, most of which escaped within about six hours of the grounding. Prince William Sound was an ecologically rich marine environment home to salmon, seals, sea otters, and seabirds, but its isolated geography made access possible only by air or sea. This isolation severely compromised immediate containment. Emergency equipment was not readily deployed; booms and skimmers proved scarce in the opening twenty-four hours, and thick kelp repeatedly clogged the apparatus once on site. A trial application of chemical dispersants proved controversial and of limited use, while high-pressure hot water washing used to scour rocky beaches ended up destroying critical shoreline microbial communities and foundational coastal organisms.