Exxon Valdez Oil Spill: Human Error Causes Environmental Disaster - Essay Sample

Introduction

During the third month of 1989, the oil tanker of Exxon Valdez loped beached on a Reef based in Prince William Sound that was in Alaska. An extensive hole was tattered into the underside, and millions of masses of crude oil got dripped into the seas. This disaster was due to a humanoid error. During the accident, the bottom was ripped off and extensive millions of gallons of the crude oil got was into the waters approximately 200 gallons every minute that passed by but the remaining amount was off-loaded. There were countless losses experienced in the tons of crude oil spillage (Incardona & Scholz,2018). This paper is a synopsis of the outcomes of the happenings of the Exxon Valdez and Prince William Sound Case in Box 3.

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The afflicted have not yet recovered from the incidence which features ExxonMobil as the core characters of the accident; numerous regions and victims are still suffering as a result of the incident. A very low amount of oil has been decreasing every year signifying that the remaining quantity may take a very long time, perhaps even decades or centuries to vanish wholly due to the low rate of confiscation. The federation prohibited the fishing activities going on in the area meaning that the people getting their livelihood from the fisheries are not able to recuperate their earnings(Nelson,2017). ExxonMobil complained much claiming that the punitive damages they were expected to pay some amount of money, regardless of the courts initially setting a significantly higher amount of money for the damages.

The ship was repaired and then, Exxon attempted to get the ship back to the fleet of Northern America though it was forbidden by the decree from getting back to the Prince William Sound. A subordinate of the ExxonMobil traded the vessel to a shipping company in Hong Kong where it later crashed with a different vessel using a changed name which led to it getting brought out of amenity( Aderhold, Holderied, Lindeberg,& Pegau,2018). The activity of Exxon was shoddier than negligence though not poorer than malevolent. The prize may not have justly reimbursed the damages caused by the oil spillage since the federations benefit so much from the oil trades and ought to offer insurance for damages such as those.

The accident caused a major toll the aquatic life since it led to an extensive loss of the aquatic animals and the people depending on the fisheries were banned from fishing from the place and the oil spilled took a very long time to vanish. The otters, killer whales, seals, sea birds, and the bald eagles were some of the aquatic animals afflicted by the oil spillage and it may also have led to collapsing of the herring and salmon fisheries situated in Prince William Sound(Adehrholt.etal,2018). There was bankruptcy for the fishermen and the finances of the minute shoreline towns inclusive of the Cordova and Valdez which were afflicted in consequent years.

Lastly, following the Exxon Valdez and Prince William Sound case, various measures were considered to prevent the occurrence of a similar accident bringing about extensive losses. There could be a set of secure shipment passages that are charted to recent criteria and evade subtle aquatic environments and sustenance use zones. The utilization and carriage of Ships' can be prohibited for the utilization of hefty fuel oil which is among the global filthiest fuels. Modification can be done for the capability of rapid and efficient response to distressed ships encompassing the liberation and search intensity and offering spill of oil cleaning training and equipment.

References

Aderhold, D. G., Holderied, K., Lindeberg, M. R., & Pegau, W. S. (2018). Spatial and temporal ecological variability in the northern Gulf of Alaska: What have we learned since the Exxon Valdez oil spill?. https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/20546/noaa_20546_DS1.pdf

Incardona, J. P., & Scholz, N. L. (2018). Case study: The 2010 deepwater horizon oil spill and its environmental developmental impacts. In Development and Environment (pp. 235-283). Springer, Cham. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-75935-7_10

Nelson, S. H. (2017). Containing environmentalism: risk, rationality, and value in the wake of the Exxon Valdez. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 28(1), 118-136. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10455752.2016.1277251