Exxon Valdez

Early in the morning of March 23, 1988, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef, near Valdez, Alaska. The area was a pristine wilderness, home to a large variety of wildlife. This was the ship’s 28th trip to this particular area, so the captain and crew were familiar with the port. It was, and still remains, the largest ship-based oil spill in American history. The BP (British Petroleum) Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 is the largest oil spill in American history at 200 million gallons of crude oil. The actual size of the Exxon Valdez oil spill remains a matter of deep division and contention to this very day. Exxon initially reported the spill at approximately ...