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Response to the Exxon Valdez Spill
Within hours after the tanker Exxon Valdez spilled nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989, a team of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) scientists arrived on-scene. During the days and weeks after the spill began,
- Coast Guard and Exxon responders and others trying to control the effects of the huge oil slick used NOAA's predictions of the trajectory of the spilled oil and NOAA scientists' observations of the oil, made during overflights and sampling trips to affected shorelines.
- Responders used our Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) maps of the region, which show the locations of especially oil-sensitive animal and plant populations, to decide which areas were most important to protect and to eventually clean up.
NOAA team members also provided weather forecasts and briefed responders about the potential costs and benefits of alternative response strategies.
Long-Term Monitoring
Important questions emerged during the response to the Exxon Valdez spill:
- How quickly and completely would affected areas recover from the spill?
- Did spill cleanup measures--which included washing oiled beaches with hot water and mechanical scrubbing of beach rocks--speed up or slow down regrowth of the plants and animals that populated those areas?
Beginning in 1989, a team of NOAA OR&R biologists began a long-term study to monitor the area affected by the spill. Their goal is to evaluate the effects both of the oiling and of subsequent cleanup treatments on intertidal and shallow subtidal habitats. These researchers are observing how quickly, and in what ways, shoreline habitats around the sound are recovering.
Exxon Valdez Image Galleries
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- Mearns Rock Time Series It isn't easy to determine whether a particular area of shoreline has recovered from oiling during an spill, or how to expect it to look when it has. This sequence of photos of the same oiled rock, taken once each year since the Exxon Valdez spill, is hard to interpret. Have the plants and animals living on and around this rock recovered from the spill? (Hint: There's not necessarily a right answer to this question.) (15 images)
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Exxon Valdez Topics
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- Prince William Sound: Ecosystem in Transition How did the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and the response to the spill, affect living organisms and their habitats? All the facts aren't yet in, but here are some 1997 results and assessments from NOAA biologists conducting long-term monitoring.
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