Life After the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill: Impacts, Conflicts, and Management Plans in Prince William Sound

No one expected any problems as the Exxon Valdez left the Alyeska Pipeline Terminal at 9:12 p.m., on March 23, 1989. The 987-foot ship, second newest in Exxon Shipping Company’s 20-tanker fleet, was loaded with 53,094,510 gallons (1,264,155 barrels) of North Slope crude oil bound for Long Beach, California (State of Alaska). Tankers carrying North Slope crude oil had safely traveled the Prince William Sound more than 8,700 times in the 12 years since oil began flowing through the trans-Alaska pipeline, with no major disasters and few serious incidents. This experience gave little reason to suspect future disaster, but less than three hours later, for reasons that still remain unclear, the Exxon Valdez grounded at Bligh Reef at 12:04 am on March 24th, rupturing eight of its 11 cargo tanks and spewing some 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound (State of Alaska). This spill has impacted Alaska’s environment and community aspects such as tourism in many ways, and will for many years to come.