The Exxon Valdez oil spill Catherine Most

The Exxon Valdez oil spill was the biggest in the nation and most devastating in terms of environmental and economical impact in world history (until the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico). It occurred on March 24, 1989 spilling about 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound. Here are interviews with people who were in some way or another connected and affected by this tragic spill:

Interview with Smiley

Smiley is like an uncle to me and good friends with my Dad. He lives with his wife Mo in Naknek, Alaska and fish many different seasons there. His real name is John Knutsen but has come to be known to me as Smiley because of the great big smile his Eskimo face makes. This is his individual experience with the Exxon Valdez oil spill:

My individual experience with the Exxon Valdez oil spill is very vague right now as it has been about twenty-one years since it happened. It was in March of 1989 when I first heard the news over the radio and did not think much of it initially as the oil leak did not begin to spread immediately and the volume and size was not very apparent at the onset. As Alaskan fisherman we are accustomed to boats and ships running aground and blowing up on the rocks during storms or mechanical mishaps or any occasional navigational failure. Generally the boat or ship sits grounded until the next high tide and it backs off under its own power or in some cases someone else aids by towing them off. In the case of the Exxon Valdez Captain Hazelwood tried repeatedly to back the vessel off but was unable to and did not report the grounding immediately. This is not an uncommon thing here in Alaska for captains to react in that fashion, I believe, as I have run aground with my own fishing vessel in my fishing endeavors and on one occasion had to call your Dad to come rescue me by towing me off. The tides had peaked and were waning and I would not have been able to float again for about three weeks.
As days went by the size and volume of the spill began to become evident and the event was on the news constantly as is the spill in the Gulf right now. I watched the evening news daily and was astonished not only by the size and how fast it was spreading but by the lack of action and by the lack of equipment to clean up the spill. No one was prepared for this catastrophe and I believe then as I do now that the Oil Companies were unwilling and unprepared to think something like this could happen. It just shows their lack of respect for the elements and the power of what nature has over humankind. As even more days passed we watched the oil slick slowly creep down the Pacific side of the Alaska Peninsula and I begin to worry that with the tides and the lack of clean up it would eventually make it through the first pass in the Aleutians. This pass is False Pass and once through there it was just a matter of days or weeks before the natural flow of the currents would have it in Bristol Bay and in the area of the largest Salmon runs in the world. We are right now being threatened by another foreign company digging the largest open pit mine at the head waters of Bristol Bay which could potentially pollute the waters of our great rivers and destroy our Salmon Fishery.
In the fall of 1989 I had just ordered a new Bristol Bay Aluminum Gillnetter from Curry in Bellingham, Wash. It was custom built to gillnet salmon, seine herring in Togiak and also long line or crab in Bristol Bay. The prices for seafood were at their all time high and we were living the good life and expecting to improve on that with the completion of the new 32' foot gillnetter to begin fishing it in 1990. I was anxious to begin fishing but news reports of the largest oil spill in the history of the U.S. and how it was tainting the fish in Prince William Sound began to spread around the world. This of course definitely affected the price of Salmon and that effect is still being felt to this day.
The size and volume to the then largest spill in the U.S. had people believing that all the seafood in Alaska was being tainted and the demand for our precious Salmon plummeted. Fortunately our price for Salmon was at $1.25 in 1990 down considerably from the all time high of $2.40 a pound. In 1991 things really made a down turn with canneries citing the Exxon Valdez as a factor in the lack of demand for Salmon offered us a meager $.50 a pound for our precious salmon. The fisherman reacted with a Bay wide strike and we eventually settled at $.70 a pound. The price never recovered and we have never gone over a dollar a pound for our salmon since then... Exxon initially were very apologetic and offered to pay all claims and would be responsible for the total clean up of Prince William Sound. As a fisherman I submitted my claim as I was affected by the drop in demand and price of Salmon but to this day twenty one years later I have not received a penny of restitution. There are rumors of payoffs for us but there never will be the total recovery of what I have lost. Both the mental and physical stress of the effect will never go away and there never can be a resolution for to heal that effect. Exxon eventually recanted on their initial statement of being responsibly for claims and cleanup which went to the wayside and went to the court system to have their liability decreased. They eventually had their case heard before the U.S. Supreme Court to lessen the fine that was initially imposed upon them and it was very favorable to them to have the liability amount reduced from five billion to five hundred million. The saga continues as we await the payment of that five hundred million.
I have made trips to Prince William Sound and to this day you can turn over any large rock and discovery oil tar and residue under the rocks and still effecting the seafood and wildlife in that area..
I hope this helps you a little as a perspective from someone who was not affected directly but indirectly and gives you an idea of how emotional and devastating it is for those affected directly.

Interview with Heide Mairs (Phd. in geology)
Heide is a geologist with Exxon Mobil having now worked for them for 25 years. She recalls that this was nothing more than a tragic accident with a tremendous clean-up effort. Exxon has had numerous studies done of the waters and rocks in and around Bligh reef and those studies show the oil to be gone. As for the remaining claims of the fishermen, Exxon paid handsomely for the clean-up, mainly hiring fishermen who were affected so there is no financial loss to them. As a company with shareholders, Exxon is beholden to their shareholders to appeal any judgment as the legal system allows. Personally, it took some focus away from the business of searching for oil fields around the world. The cost of discovering new oil reserves is tremendous and the clean-up took resources and attention away from that for over a year. The company has gone to great expense to make sure that all their oil tankers in Alaskan waters are double-hulled.

Interview with Peter Most

Peter is a commercial fisherman in Alaska and my dad. He was living in Seattle Washington with his wife of one year when the Exxon Valdez ran aground. This is his story of the Exxon Valdez disaster:
The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in 1989 when I was 32. I had been running my own boat and crew since I was 18. I was not even in Alaska at the time of the spill but it was all over the news and fast. I was not affected by it directly because Prince William Sound is nowhere near Bristol Bay where I fish. The spill affected me indirectly because it put a damper on the market for all salmon, especially Alaskan salmon which was my major source of income. A lot of salmon come out of Prince William Sound because it is a major fishery. More Humpie (pink) salmon come out of Prince William Sound but more sockeye salmon come out of Bristol Bay. Alaska has the largest salmon runs in the world. Since the spill, there have been very few salmon come out of Prince William Sound; their fishery has come back little by little but is still nothing compared to what it was before. It is a big debate on whether or not to help restore the fishery or let it restore naturally by itself. This controversy is because many hatcheries around the world that have had manmade intervention are not doing as well as others that have just simply been left alone.
I have never been to Valdez but did go to Cordova (which is a neighboring city) in 1974 with dad to go hiking. We took our big boat named Kayak, which was a processor (basically a floating canary) to buy people’s fish and then process them on the boat and can then to be sold to people elsewhere. Of what I can remember it was cold, and all the old people drank beer and wine, and most of all it was beautiful. The bay that we anchored in was the most natural place in the world with the ecosystem and landscape untouched by man, except for the small fishing village.
When the spill first happened Exxon convinced the state of Alaska to redirect all resources deemed necessary to Prince William Sound and this had a tremendous ripple effect. An example of that is this: Bristol Bay is the home of the largest sockeye salmon run in the world. You basically fish up to 20 hours per day for 3 weeks straight and usually for 2-3 weeks beyond that at a slower pace. But 80% of the income from this fishery is made in the 3 week peak fishing period. You must be prepared. All fishermen prearrange their fuel sources. Fuel is purchased in Seattle (There are no refineries in Alaska) and shipped in by barge to arrive on the fishing grounds as the season starts. But the spill happened as many of those fuel barges were leaving Seattle. Some fuel barges were on the fishing grounds early but most were en route as Exxon started to scramble for resources. All fuel barges heading into Alaskan waters were redirected to Prince William Sound. Fishermen in Bristol Bay, who had paid for that fuel months ahead, had to leave their boats tied to docks and could not fish. That left them with no income for the season. That in turn caused many to be unable to make boat payments (Boats for the Bay cost upwards of $350,000 in addition to the permit cost which was approximately $250,000 at that time) which in turn caused the boats to be taken and sold by the banks holding the loans. Exxon never compensated these people. If a fuel barge had hit rough seas and sank on the way to Bristol Bay, the fisherman’s entire season would be covered by insurance. But Exxon was responsible so the boat/season insurance did not compensate the fishermen as Exxon was expected to do that. The initial judgment in favor of these types of claimants has been fought by Exxon in various courts for 21 years. Many of the fishermen impacted in this way are now dead. Exxon is still fighting the judgment which has been reduced multiple times and currently stands at one tenth the original judgment. That amount of money is equal to one day’s profit for Exxon at current earnings. I also remember that I thought it was interesting that after the Exxon Valdez was towed to a dry dock in the lower 48, the company changed the name of the ship and sent it to the Mediterranean or someplace far away from Alaska. They also closed every Exxon retail gas station in Alaska and many in Washington as people were boycotting them.
A friend of mine visited the city of Valdez about a year ago and told me about the people in the city. They don’t even want to talk about the spill, and I don’t blame them, it was an event that put that city on the world map and caused many suicides. The local museum was given a grant that they still have not put to use because it was for the museum to be expanded for an exhibit on the Exxon Valdez oil spill. To the people of the town, the spill is something that must not be named.
The other way the spill impacted the state is by impacting the perception of the fish on the world market. At the time, the majority of the salmon caught in the entire state of Alaska were sold to overseas markets, mainly Japan. Once the spill occurred with the ensuing worldwide news coverage, Japan and other major buyers called all Alaskan salmon ‘Tainted’ claiming the fish were now worth substantially less on the world market. A salmon from Bristol Bay could not possibly ever have entered the waters of Prince William Sound. Bristol Bay fish grow up in the Bering Sea and then return directly to the Bay. But for over ten years people claimed that the fish were not being received well on the world market as they might have come through the heavily oiled waters of Prince William Sound. Alaskan salmon was all treated the same. The price for Bristol Bay sockeye went from $2.00 per pound the year before the spill to $1.50 and then continued to drop to $.60. Only now, over twenty years later is it recovering to $1.00.
The one good thing to come out of the Exxon Valdez was the law requiring all oil tankers sailing in Alaskan waters to be double hulled rather than single hulled. It is expensive, but preserving the ecosystem should come at any cost.