8/14/2019 Exxon Valdez Article

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exxon-valdez-article 1/3

The day is the 24rd of March, 1989. At the dawn of this new day, the Exxon Valdez oil

tanker crashed into a reef. Millions of gallons of oil were released into Prince William

Sound. This area, dense in wild marine organisms, was heavily damaged from this spill.

Over 1000 miles of beach was covered in crude oil. This spill is considered one of the

greatest manmade disasters ever.

Why It Happened

An in depth study was conducted after the spill linking crew fatigue directly to accidents.

It was found that most marine disasters (over 80%) were caused by human error.

During the voyage protocol was critically broken. Only one officer was on the bridge

when the policy of Exxon states that there must be two at all times. This officer had

been previously impaired, leaving him incapable of properly navigating the ship and

dealing with the aftermath of the grounding. The officer, 3rd mate Cousins, had notreceived enough sleep. An investigation after the spill found that he had been awake

nearly 18 hours His fatigue jeopardized the ship and led to the accident.

However, the captain of the ship, Joseph Hazelwood, was intoxicated in the hours

leading up to the grounding. This caused him to change the course of his vessel,

ultimately leading them severely off course and into dangerous waters.

The Exxon Valdez switched into the inbound shipping lane while it was outbound for 

Long Beach, CA. The crew did this in an attempt to avoid sailing through ice, which was

frequent due to a nearby glacier. However, ice can be navigated easily by dropping to aslower speed and tapping the ice aside. In order to make their trip faster, Captain

Hazelwood decided to switch lanes. He informed the traffic center he would be

switching lanes and they accepted his request. However, what Captain Hazelwood did

not report was that he would steer the ship far out of the lane, which went against

protocol. Switching shipping lanes would have been fine if the captain did not decide to

drift further. This caused the crew to not spot the reef they would inevitably crash into,

until it was too late.

Bligh Reef, where the Exxon Valdez was grounded, had been marked with a light so

ships could navigate around it. 3rd

mate Cousins was supposed to steer the ship backon course but he never did, probably due to his fatigue. When he did not, the ship was

headed on a course for disaster.

The watch crew had spotted light off of the reef but it was not on the side they expected;

this was because earlier the captain had decided to switch lanes and sail the ship off 

course. When the crew finally spotted the light off of the reef it was too late for the pilot

8/14/2019 Exxon Valdez Article

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exxon-valdez-article 2/3

to turn the ship around. Due to fatigue, the pilot, 3rd mate Cousins, was unable to

properly navigate the ship away from the reef or reduce the inevitable damage.

Root CauseOverall this spill was caused by the inability of the Exxon Valdez officers, the poor ship

traffic system led by the Coast Guard, and the lack of protocol Exxon put in place to

keep their officers in check and fit for duty. The root cause of this disaster was human

error. It was the fault of the officers, who had been impaired in one way or another. The

captain had gone to a bar before leaving port and was intoxicated during the voyage. 3 rd

mate Cousins, who had worked nearly 18 straight hours, was too exhausted to pilot the

ship.

What Happened

The Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef on March 24th, 1989. Of the 11 oil tanks

the Exxon Valdez carried 8 were punctured by the reef. This sent approximately 10.8

million gallons of crude oil into the ocean; that’s enough oil to fill 125 Olympic swimming

pools (get picture of an Olympic pool). It ravaged over a thousand miles of beaches,

demolishing the previously untouched marine life of Prince William Sound.

Aftermath

When the word spread that the Exxon Valdez had been grounded in Prince William

Sound, panic spread quickly. The Exxon Company rushed to get all available clean up

gear together and send it into Prince William Sound. Unfortunately, the Sound is very

hard to access by vehicle. This made the precious first few hours of the spill

inaccessible to clean up crews, causing even more oil to leak out and spread

throughout the environment. When crews finally did arrive it was far too late. The marine

life in the area was devastated. Otters, sea birds, and other organisms were

slaughtered; the oil had impaired them greatly. The animals could no longer function in

their habitat, causing their deaths. Clean up crews tried their best to save the animals,

but the spill had already killed thousands. They used fire houses and oil solutions in an

attempt to contain and dispose of the oil. $2 billion and many years later, the clean up

finally ended. While their efforts were great, it was ultimately not enough to restore theenvironment. Oil still lingers in Prince William Sound today.

Resources

http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/facts/index.cfm

8/14/2019 Exxon Valdez Article

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exxon-valdez-article 3/3

Recovery

Today oil still lingers in Prince William Sound, but so too does the recovery effort.

Hundreds of millions of dollars went into initial relief such as saving the animals and

cleaning up the beaches. It was clear, however, that recovery would not come swiftly.

Therefore, part of Exxon’s $2 billion law suit went into long term recovery and research.Various agencies and scientists were hired with this money to help out. Gallons of oil

were removed from Prince William Sound in the years that followed. Since then, great

strides have been made and continue to be made in oil recovery research. The overall

budget use can be found here http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/facts/restorationplan.cfm