Just after midnight on March 24, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez grounded on Bligh Reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. Despite the efforts undertaken to stabilize the vessel and prevent further spillage of oil, more than 250,000 barrels of oil were lost in just a short period of time. Within hours after the tanker Exxon Valdez began spilling crude oil into Prince William Sound, Alaska, a team of NOAA scientists from OR&R arrived on-scene.. During the days and weeks after the spill, U.S. Coast Guard and Exxon responders and others trying to control the effects of the huge oil slick used NOAA's predictions of the spilled oil’s trajectory in Prince William Sound. Of the 5,000-10,000 otters thought to occur within Prince William Sound, pe~aps 2-3,000 lived within the area impacted by the spill. Some anniversaries are somber, not celebratory. It contaminated 1,300 miles of … Among the measures taken to improve oil-spill prevention: Although the oil miss ed some of the areas with large concentrations of otters in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the Sound, the areas hardest hit were known A new study released today into the effects of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska shows that embryonic salmon and herring exposed to very low levels of crude oil can develop hidden heart defects that compromise their later survival, indicating that the spill may have had much greater impacts on spawning fish than previously recognized. But you don’t have to dig too deep—into the soil or into memories—to find the spill’s lingering effects. According to official reports, the ship was carrying about 55 million gallons of crude oil, of which it spilled close to 11 million gallons into the ocean.This is a commonly accepted estimate of the spill’s volume and has been used by the State of Alaska’s Exxon Valdez Oil Spill The Exxon Valdez disaster was a missed opportunity for answering questions about worker health now being asked in the Gulf. Changes ExxonMobil has made to prevent another accident like Valdez. That’s unquestionably the case as we approach the 29 th anniversary of the disastrous Exxon Valdez oil spill. While acute, short-term effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) on sea otters are indisputable, longer-term effects on this or other species are much more difficult to document. Economic Impacts of the Spill. Changes ExxonMobil has made to prevent another accident like Valdez. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trus-tee Council has funded re-search on the spill’s effects for more than a decade and currently spends several hundred thou-sand dollars a year on research into the long-term effects of the spill. Twenty Years Later, Impacts of the Exxon Valdez Linger Two decades after the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s waters, the Prince William Sound, its fishermen, and its wildlife have still not fully recovered. Prior to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, it was the largest single oil spill in U.S. coastal waters. In the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez accident, ExxonMobil redoubled its long-time commitment to safeguard the environment, employees and operating communities worldwide. ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, there was the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, at the time the nation's largest oil spill. More Information about the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill NOAA's Long-Term Study of Prince William Sound: Learn more about how a team of OR&R biologists conducted a long-term study to monitor the area of Prince William Sound, Alaska, affected by the 1989 spill. The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, March 24, 1989, when Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker owned by Exxon Shipping Company, bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef, 1.5 mi (2.4 km) west of Tatitlek, Alaska, at 12:04 a.m. and spilled 10.8 million US gallons (260,000 bbl) (or 37,000 metric tonnes) of crude oil over the next few days. However, this and other studies suggests the remaining oil is sequestered, or buried, and currently is not posing a risk to the coastal and marine ecosystem. ly impacted by the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Prince William Sound is easily the best-studied oil-spill site in the world. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill incident. A small portion of the oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill still lingers in patches beneath Prince William Sound, Alaska, beaches. On March 24, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez grounded on Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound, rupturing its hull and spilling nearly 11 million gallons of Prudhoe Bay crude oil into a remote, scenic, and biologically productive body of water.. The ill-effects of Exxon Valdez Oil Spill were not only for the marine creatures but also for the people residing in the adjacent areas of Prince William Sound. One of the immediate short-term effects of the casualty caused by the Exxon Valdez was the impact on recreational fishing which was carried out in the Prince William Sound. They also employed NOAA scientists' observations of the oil, made during overflights and sampling trips to affected shorelines. Approximately 11 million gallons of oil spilled into the Sound’s rich and productive waters. On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez ran aground in northern Prince William Sound, spilling 42 million liters of crude oil and contaminating 1,990 kilometers of shoreline.