Northwest Bay Study Site
This rocky beach on an islet in Northwest Bay is one of the OR&R study sites. Below is a photo of the site taken in June 1989, only months after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and very soon after this area had been cleaned with high-pressure hot water. Extensive areas of dead rockweed (Fucus gardneri) are visible in this photo.
Here is a photo of the same section of the site, taken in 1998. During the years since the oil spill, rockweed has extensively reestablished itself.
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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 for the past 9 years, is hard to interpret. Have the plants and animals living on and around this rock recovered from the Exxon Valdez spill? (Hint: There's not necessarily a right answer to this question.) (15 images)
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Other pages in this series
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