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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
An 8 page overview of the May 24, 1989 catastrophe involving the oil tanker Exxon
Valdez. The author of this paper reviews both the immediate and long-term impacts that were incurred by a diversity of organisms in the Prince
William Sound. Bibliography lists 10 sources.
Page Count:
8 pages (~225 words per page)
File: AM2_PPexxonV.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
would be subjected to one of the most catastrophic oil spills of all time. Just after midnight an oil tanker, the 987 ft. Exxon Valdez, ran aground (MacLeod, 1989).
The hull of the ship was ripped open and 20,000 gallons of oil an hour gushed into the sea (MacLeod, 1989). Estimates as to the amount of crude
oil that was spilled into the Sound range between ten million gallons (Harrald, 1994) and forty-two million liters (Andres, 1999). Some 563 kilometers of shoreline was impacted (Andres, 1999,
The Economist, 1999). Andres (1999) reports: "Within two weeks after the spill, only 5%
of the oil was floating in the Sound (Galt et al. 1991); the remainder (55%) exited the Sound, evaporated, or dispersed into the water column. Because oil that washed ashore
persisted longer than oil that remained in the water column, bird species that inhabited shorelines and nearshore waters were subjected to prolonged exposure to oil and were among the species
most heavily influenced by the initial effects of the spill" Birds were hardly the only
species to be impacted by the spill however. Million of fish joined the quarter million of sea bird casualties (The Economist, 1999). There was broad range impact to
the aquatic life forms that inhabited the sound and to the wildlife that lived there. Even now, some fifteen years later, the ecological impacts of the spill are still
evident. The spill continues to interfere with the lifeways of several species of plants and animals. Herring, for example, no longer spawn as they once did. This
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