In this episode, we talk with noaa marine biologist gary shigenaka to find out how marine life in prince william sound, alaska, is faring today. An unlikely alliance of regulators, politicians, oil industry executives, and international spill response experts came together after the spill to reimagine oil spill preparedness and response in prince william sound. The exxon valdez spill, though still one of the largest ever in the united states, has dropped from the top 50 internationally (view a list of top oil spills worldwide). Many factors complicated the cleanup efforts following the spill The size of the spill and its remote location, accessible only by helicopter and boat, made government and industry efforts difficult and tested existing plans for dealing with such an event. The spill occurred when exxon valdez, an oil supertanker owned by exxon shipping company, bound for long beach, california, struck prince william sound 's bligh reef, 6 mi (9.7 km) west of tatitlek, alaska at 12:04 a.m.
On march 24, 1989, the massive oil tanker exxon valdez ran aground on bligh reef in alaska’s prince william sound, spilling an estimated 11 million gallons of oil into the gulf of alaska.
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