Effects of the spill.
Extent of the spill. In the 1989 spill, crude oil spread across Alaska's coastal seas covering 10,000 square miles, an area the size of Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, and 25 Washington, D.C.s combined![8]
Within a week, currents and winds pushed the slick 90 miles from the site of the tanker, out of Prince William Sound into the Gulf of Alaska. It eventually reached nearly 600 miles away from the wreck[9] contaminating 1,500 miles of shoreline-- about the length of California's coast.
Highest toll of birds and mammals ever
"What surprised me most was the silence."
-- Dan Lawn, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, April 9, 1989[10]
The spill hit just as the coast stirred with spring life. Zooplankton and phytoplankton beginning to bloom. Salmon fry emerging from gravel beds in freshwater streams, herring returning to spawn. Soon, migratory birds began nesting. It was just before peak pupping for sea otters, seals, and sea lions, and when marine mammals concentrate in coastal waters to eat herring, krill, and salmon.[11]
More marine mammals and birds died than in any other oil spill. Some populations, like harbor seal, were already declining so the spill added insult to injury. Only 2 of 26 species studied by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council have recovered (bald eagle and river otter).[12] "The Exxon Valdez spill killed nearly ten times as many birds as any other U.S. or European oil spill," said seabird expert Dr. Michael Fry. As many as half a million birds died. Over 30,000 carcasses of 90 species of birds were plucked from the beaches, but this is only a fraction of the actual mortality.[13] Harm to birds from chronic effects and decreased reproduction continues to the present.
Some fish died but the most serious damage was to their critical spawning and rearing habitats. Salmon spawn in the intertidal zone, herring in the subtidal zone on kelp, and Dolly varden and cutthroat trout feed in shallow water. Over 100 salmon streams were oiled.[14]
STATE OF THE SOUND
Toxic effects linger.
To the naked eye, Prince William Sound may appear normal. But if you look beneath the surface, oil continues to contaminate beaches, national parks, and designated wilderness. In fact, the Office of Technology Assessment estimated beach cleanup and oil skinning only recovered 3-4% of the Exxon Valdez oil and studies by government scientists estimated that only 14% of the oil was removed during cleanup operations.[15]
A decade later, the ecosystem still suffers. Substantial contamination of mussel beds persists and this remarkably unweathered oil is a continuing source of toxic hydrocarbons.[16] Sea otters, river otters, Barrows goldeneyes, and harlequin ducks have showed evidence of continued hydrocarbon exposure in the past few years.[17]
The depressed population of Pacific herring a critical source of food for over 40 predators including seabirds, harbor seals and Steller sea lions is having severe impacts up the food chain. Wildlife population declines continue for harbor seal, killer whales, harlequin ducks, common loon, pigeon guillemot, and pelagic, red-faced cormorant, and double-crested cormorants.
Exxon-funded scientists have repeatedly dismissed evidence of on-going effects to wildlife from the massive 1989 oil spill by claiming that oil seeps contribute a bigger background source of hydrocarbons in bottom sediments in Prince William Sound.[18] Yet, they dismiss coal as a possible source due to ignoring location of known deposits and other factors about its fingerprint. A new study by the National Marine Fisheries Service concluded that the source is coal, and that coal hydrocarbons are not chemically available to impact wildlife.[19]
Link.
http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/SEEJ/Alaska/miller2.htm
