Skip to main content. Published: April 12, Yes, Says Science. Join Intervention Join Intervention. Here are some of the most startling statistics about the effects of the Exxon Valdez spill on marine wildlife , fisheries and the region's economy: The amount of oil spilled could fill Olympic-sized swimming pools. As many as 2, sea otters , harbor seals, bald eagles and , seabirds died in the days following the disaster. The cleanup required about 10, workers, 1, boats and roughly airplanes and helicopters.
Four deaths were directly associated with cleanup efforts. Tourism spending decreased by eight percent in south central Alaska and by 35 percent in southwest Alaska in the year after the spill. It killed an estimated , sea birds, 3, otters, seals, bald eagles and 22 killer whales. The oil spill also may have played a role in the collapse of salmon and herring fisheries in Prince William Sound in the early s.
Fishermen went bankrupt, and the economies of small shoreline towns, including Valdez and Cordova, suffered in the following years. A study found oil contamination remaining at more than half of the 91 beach sites tested in Prince William Sound. The spill had killed an estimated 40 percent of all sea otters living in the Sound. Stocks of herring, once a lucrative source of income for Prince William Sound fisherman, have never fully rebounded.
In the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the U. Bush signed into law that year. The Oil Pollution Act of increased penalties for companies responsible for oil spills and required that all oil tankers in United States waters have a double hull. Exxon Valdez was a single-hulled tanker; a double-hull design, by making it less likely that a collision would have spilled oil, might have prevented the Exxon Valdez disaster.
The ship, Exxon Valdez —first commissioned in —was repaired and returned to service a year after the spill in a different ocean and under a different name. The single-hulled ship could no longer transport oil in U. The ship began running oil transport routes in Europe, where single-hulled oil tankers were still allowed.
In , the European Union banned single-hulled tankers and the former Exxon Valdez moved to Asian waters. Exxon sold the infamous tanker in to a Hong Kong-based shipping company. The company converted the old oil tanker to an ore carrier, renaming it the Dong Feng Ocean. In , the star-crossed ship collided with another bulk carrier in the Yellow Sea and was once again severely damaged. The ship was renamed once more after the collision, becoming the Oriental Nicety.
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