The valdez oil spill

19 years ago there was an oil spill in Prince William sound, near Valdez. The petroleum oil tanker Exxon Valdez had hit a rock and oil started to leak oil. (I think it must have been leaking pretty fast because it lost 10.8 million gallons out of 53,094,510 gallons of oil.) Then otters started to die because they got oil all over their fur and tried to lick it off, and ingested the oil. Fish were affected but not immediately, because fish live under water, and the oil was on top of the water.

Seals and birds covered in oil started to wash up on shore.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:EVOSWEB_013_oiled_bird3.jpg#file

Eagles lay on shore paralyzed and unable to move due to the oil. Eagles soar through the air, then like they are landing, tuck their wings back in and dive into the water to catch fish, but because of the oil they would dive into the water but not be able to take off out of it because the oil would get stuck all over their feathers and they would be unable to fly.

Scientists said that it would take 20 to 70 years to recover from the accident (Its been 20 years, And were STILL not recovered).

Overnight the oil leak spread 18 miles on the south coast of Alaska but in a few days, it spread over 40 miles.