The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Approximately eleven years ago, an area of Alaska's southern coast known as Prince William Sound was a disaster area. A nauseating scent of rotting carcasses and oil filtered through the air. Sea birds screamed in anguish as they fought to survive with oil drenched feathers. Under the surface billions of organisms ceased to live due to the toxicity of the inescapable wrath of the blackened water. Prince William Sound had once been a place of beauty and grace, now it was home to an environmental deathbed. The media broadcast pictures of this nearly unbearable scene throughout the world. Most people, including myself, wondered if the ecological war zone would ever recover

Oil covered everything: beaches, animals, plants, bottoms of boats. Approximately 205.8 million gallons of oil leaked into the ocean and toward the Louisiana shoreline. To put the amount in perspective, that oil could be used to drive a Toyota Prius around the earth 184,181 times (Repanich). All of this pollution and destruction because of one singular company: British Petroleum. Needless to say, the image of BP was tarnished because of this. What can a company do to come back from such a serious setback? This was the question that was faced by the company in 2010 (when the spill occurred), and is still being wrestled with today. By analyzing BP’s “Commitment to the Gulf” ad campaign, the brand’s desired identity is made very apparent. When it comes to oil, nearly all consumers are involved. However, BP does take specific steps in order to narrow down a target audience when it comes to advertising its product. Despite the hardships faced by BP stemming from the spill, consumers still have an addiction to oil. BP, the fourth largest oil company in the world (“Biggest Oil”), has such a firm hold on consumer society that it is a necessity in today’s consumer landscape. By pushing the brand’s identity to its target audience, BP used branding to overcome a severe controversy and rebuild the image it hoped to convey to consumers.

Every day individuals take the true beauty of our nation by visiting recreational areas along with beaches. Oil spills create nothing, but negative effects on the areas that it happens in. Many plants and animals are affected by this negative disaster which sickness the animals or some even die from it. Maybe if more time and money was spent working on having more efficient renewable energy sources than digging up a source of fuel that will eventually run out we would not have as much of a problem.

Imagine 2,500 to 68,000 square miles covered in 4.9 million barrels of oil. No, imagine being covered in 4.9 million barrels of oil. Picture yourself gasping for air in an ocean filled with oil. That is exactly what birds, sea turtles, dolphins, and other animals had to do after the most catastrophic oil spill of all time occurred on April 20, 2010.

The oil spill created long term problems for the living organisms that inhabit the Gulf of Mexico. The oil covered the feathers of birds, making them unable to float at the surface. The oil killed some of the deep sea coral as far as seven miles away from the site. Mammals ingested the oil, which resulted in some of the mammals having internal bleeding and ulcers. This has also lead to an increase in sea turtles stranding, sick dolphins, and a decrease in population of many marine animals. This disaster stuck during the breeding season for many species of wildlife. “The oil’s toxicity may have hit egg and larval organisms immediately”, which could have wiping out those age classes. Population dips and cascading food web has occurred due to

One of the most recognized disasters regarding hazardous chemicals is the wreck of the infamous Exxon Valdez. After the oil tanker ran aground on Bligh reef in the spring of 1989, millions of liters of crude oil leaked into the Prince William Sound, off the coast of Northern Alaska causing millions of the native wildlife to die. Thankfully, it didn’t seep into the open ocean but the oil harmed not only the local Alaskan wildlife it also harmed the reputation and honesty of big oil corporations such as the Exxon shipping company, the livelihoods of thousands of the local fishermen and the water quality of the Prince William Sound. The Exxon Valdez

To begin, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill was a man-made environmental disaster that occurred in 1989. On March 24, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck Bligh Reef and spilled 260,000 barrels of crude oil into the waters of Prince William Sound in Alaska (Piatt, Lensick, Butler, Kendziorek & Nysewander, 1990). Eventually, this oil spread across 30,000 km² of water, damaging ecosystems and marine life along the way (Piatt, 1990). Evidently, this oil spill is considered to be one of the most destructive man-made environmental disasters in history (Dimdam, 2013).

They failed to include with these evaluations any sources of error in the data they disclosed. For example, inconclusive data surrounding specific species prior to the spill in Prince William Sound or the inexperience scientists had in dealing with a spill of this magnitude. This paper will focus on investigating the news media’s coverage of the spill, in light of scientific research performed, on the environmental impacts of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The environmental impacts studied will demonstrate the errors in the news media’s reporting and ultimate irresponsible reporting of the spill.

Looking back on the night of March 24, 1989 when the Exxon Valdez left port, it seemed as though the ship had only lasted as long as it had by running on luck and hope. With the company trying to save money and the crew working on fumes, things were headed down a dark path. One of the wonderful things about being human is our ability to look back on events that have occurred and learn from them. Unfortunately for Exxon, it took a catastrophic accident like this one to show how operations could be improved and how to be better prepared for the unexpected. These events are broken down to shed light on what made the Exxon Valdez accident a mess from port departure to today.

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill occurred on April 20, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. This oil spill was the largest spill in history in front of the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989. This oil spill released about 4.9 million barrels of oil into the ocean. This spill not only wreck havoc on the marine life but also the economic players that depended on ocean such as fisherman, tourism, and offshore drilling located along the gulf coast. Along will the spill the oil rig which was named Deepwater Horizon also went up in flames. This proved that the issue went far beyond just an oil rig that blew a line. Since this oil spill had drastic impacts all along the coast, BP which was the most liable for this incident faced criminal charges based on what happened. BP which knew the risks of deep ocean drilling failed to take the necessary safety procedures to reduce the risks of such incident occurring, thus was the reasoning behind placing most of the fault on them and not the other companies. The lack of regulatory oversight led to the issues and cost-cutting procedures opened the rig up to possible malfunctions like the one that occurred. During the spill into the gulf, BP sealed the well with cement which seemed to stop a majority of the oil from escaping the well. BP also recognized that the well was “dead” which was proven wrong when scientists still could conclude was leaking minor amounts of oil into the ocean. This spill not only proved to be harmful to the environment but also

Lutra canadenis, river otter, in the Prince William Sound, Alaska encountered major effects for the Exxon Valdez oil spill (Duffy et al. 1994). Lutra canadenis consume marine fish and marine invertebrates which makes them unique from freshwater otters and inshore otters (Bowyer et al. 1995). L. canadenis are terrific species to display pollution effects on mammals (Duffy et al. 1994). It was noted by, Duffy et al. that river otters in the areas located in the oil spill had a decrease in body weight and the levels of haptoglobin in the blood was elevated. Duffy et al. discovered that the river otters in the areas affected by the oil had a higher level of haptoglobin, aspartate aminotransferase, and interleukin which indicated that there was

In this century, there are nothing new about human corruption of the earth. However, in this article said that today, scientists has investigated the effects of Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 on Alaskan communities and ecosystems for embryonic salmon and herring. Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska shows that the spill may had much greater impacts on spawning fish than previously recognized because of crude oil can develop hidden heart defects that adjustment for their later survival.

The Exxon-Valdez oil spill occurred on March 24, 1989, when the tanker Exxon Valdez, transporting oil from Valdez, Alaska to Los Angeles, California, ran aground on the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The root cause of the accident was the captain. After passing through Valdez Narrows, pilot Murphy left the vessel and Captain Hazelwood took over the wheelhouse. It was Captain Hazelwood who made the decision to steer the ship off its normal path in order to avoid a run in with ice. For reasons that remain unclear, as Captain Hazelwood retired in his quarters, his copilots Cousins and Kagan failed to make the turn back into the shipping lanes and the ship ran aground on Bligh Reef at 12:04 a.m., March 24, 1989. There have been several speculations on what occurred, however, The National Transportation Safety Board investigated the accident and determined five probable causes of the grounding: (1) The third mate failed to properly maneuver the vessel, possibly due to fatigue and excessive workload; (2) the master failed to provide a proper navigation watch, possibly due to impairment from alcohol; (3) Exxon Shipping Company failed to supervise the master and provide a rested and sufficient crew for the Exxon Valdez; (4) the U.S. Coast Guard failed to provide an effective vessel traffic system; and (5) effective pilot and escort services were lacking.

The e Deepwater Horizon oil spill at the Macondo well began on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on 20 April 2010 killed 11 people and caused almost 5 million barrels of oil to flow into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill covered 68,000 square miles of land and sea and triggered a response effort involving the use of nearly 2 million gallons of dispersant chemicals (Pallardy). Considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in history, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DHOS) resulted in widespread environmental and economic damage, the exact nature of which is only beginning to be understood (Shultz 59). This paper will address the causes of this unmitigated ecological disaster and discuss steps that need to be taken to prevent a similar disaster from occurring again.

BP (British Petroleum) is one of the leading companies that are delivering energy products and services to the people around the world. In this report, we studied BP’s risk management plan for preventing oil spill. The main reason for choosing BP and its oil spill preparedness plan is that the oil companies have become increasingly vulnerable to unwillingly cause disasters and BP is one of them. An event that highlighted this vulnerability and subsequently drew attention to the need to investigate, is the BP oil spill in 2010 was one of the worst oil disasters that affected environment adversely. Issues such as these have been a serious concern for the oil companies around the world.