How long was the exxon valdez oil spill

Owing to this positivity of the situation, one can rest assured that in spite of an accident happening, one managed to avert the worst and ended up doing a marine salvage in the best possible manner. Data and charts, if used, in the article have been sourced from available information and have not been authenticated by any statutory authority. The author and Marine Insight do not claim it to be accurate nor accept any responsibility for the same.

The views constitute only the opinions and do not constitute any guidelines or recommendation on any course of action to be followed by the reader. The article or images cannot be reproduced, copied, shared or used in any form without the permission of the author and Marine Insight. Tags: Exxon Valdez oil spill. Journalist by training, and an academic in aspiration, Shamseer Mambra currently works as a freelance journalist, after spending three years in the newsrooms of some of the reputed media houses in India.

When not at work, he likes to read, click photographs and go for a ride on his bike. This oil spill happened because the vessel traffic controllers at VTS Valdez dropped the ball.

I personally know both controllers involved. You rehash the tired story that Captain Hazlewood was under the influence of alcohol. That was disputed at the time and later in court where he received considerable compensation for damage to his professional image.

He never worked again at sea due to his tarnished reputation. EXXON blamed everyone else for the disaster while sending out smoke screen after smoke screen trying to avoid their own complicity. Their response to the oil spill was initially chaotic and badly co-ordinated, had they responded as you suggest many of the problems still affecting Prince William Sound could have been avoided.

This draconian measure was one of the smoke screens employed to divert researchers from looking too closely for the real causes. Part of the US cabotage or Jones Act fleet. A lot of mistakes in this article. And the primary cause has not been revealed in the article. I have spent 3 years researching the incident and I think I have worked out the primary cause. Settlement funds have been used to fund multiple restoration and protection projects throughout Prince William Sound, the Gulf of Alaska, and for habitats outside of the state that are important for migratory species.

More than , acres of land have been protected using settlement funds and matching funds from numerous restoration, research, and monitoring programs. Ultimately, the Exxon Valdez spill resulted in a close examination of the status of oil spill prevention, response, and cleanup in the United States. Learn more about the Exxon Valdez spill assessment and restoration activities.

What Were the Impacts? Current restoration activities are focused on: Long-term herring research and monitoring Long-term monitoring of marine conditions and injured resources Shorter-term harbor protection and restoration projects Lingering oil Habitat protection Long-term monitoring of marine conditions and restoration effectiveness is ongoing. Response crews attempt to remove the remaining oil aboard the grounded tanker Exxon Valdez. It cited tougher regulations and better navigation equipment for the performance improvements, but increased offshore oil drilling has created new risks for leaks.

NS Energy is using cookies We use them to give you the best experience. Continue Learn More X. Remember me. Don't have an account? The disaster led to the passage of the Oil Pollution Act , which increased penalties for companies that spill oil into oceans and rivers The Exxon Valdez tanker had a single hull - but legislation that resulted from the oil spill forced similar vessels to be double-hulled Credit: NOAA The year is often described as a turning point in political history as the fall of the Berlin Wall triggered the collapse of the Soviet Union — but there was also a huge impact on the energy industry after the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

How did the Exxon Valdez oil spill happen? Cleaning up the oil spill It was several days before the clean-up operation got underway and it was reportedly this delay that made the accident so catastrophic as efforts to contain the oil slick became impossible as it spread to more areas.

What was the long-term impact on the oil sector? They later found that aggressive washing with high-pressure, hot water hoses was effective in removing oil, but did even more ecological damage by killing the remaining plants and animals in the process. They found that many of the mussels, barnacles and various seaweeds growing on the rock before the spill returned to normal levels about three to four years after the spill.

Prince William Sound had been a pristine wilderness before the spill. The Exxon Valdez disaster dramatically changed all of that, taking a major toll on wildlife. It killed an estimated , sea birds, 3, otters, seals, bald eagles and 22 killer whales.

The oil spill also may have played a role in the collapse of salmon and herring fisheries in Prince William Sound in the early s. Fishermen went bankrupt, and the economies of small shoreline towns, including Valdez and Cordova, suffered in the following years.

A study found oil contamination remaining at more than half of the 91 beach sites tested in Prince William Sound. The spill had killed an estimated 40 percent of all sea otters living in the Sound. Stocks of herring, once a lucrative source of income for Prince William Sound fisherman, have never fully rebounded.

In the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the U. Bush signed into law that year. The Oil Pollution Act of increased penalties for companies responsible for oil spills and required that all oil tankers in United States waters have a double hull.

Exxon Valdez was a single-hulled tanker; a double-hull design, by making it less likely that a collision would have spilled oil, might have prevented the Exxon Valdez disaster. The ship, Exxon Valdez —first commissioned in —was repaired and returned to service a year after the spill in a different ocean and under a different name. The single-hulled ship could no longer transport oil in U. The ship began running oil transport routes in Europe, where single-hulled oil tankers were still allowed.