Oil Spills
Imagine that you are a just a small, ordinary seabird. It is March 24, 1987 and far away from you is an enormous tanker called the Exxon Valdez, coming at an astonishing speed. You do not worry, for these huge ships come along very occasionally in the Alaskan waters. The next thing you know when you turn around is that something wrong. The tanker is heading towards Bligh Reef, which is a mass of granite pinnacles. It crashes into the reef and something black, thick and disturbing leaks out of the ship into the beautiful waters of Prince William Sound. Your attention suddenly turns to a fish shimmering in the waters. Without hesitation, you snatch it up and gulp it down. As you're busily eating, you notice that you're covered completely with this mysterious black substance. 11 million gallons of this black substance is everywhere and it is continuing to spread and spread. You see thousands of other birds with the same problem. You try to fly, but your wings are too heavy. You flap and flap but it is hopeless. Sinking to the bottom of the beautiful waters, you wonder what that sticky black killer was. It's simple. It's crude. It's oil. This scenario is nothing but a harsh realit
This was the Exxon Valdez, which was moved to a place where temporary repairs could be done. The linings around the vessel are booms. When most people hear the words oil-spill, they picture the wreck of a huge tanker like the Exxon Valdez. But not all oil-spills happen this way. Some are the result of mistakes made by crewmembers as some are caused by mechanical failures. Most of it, however, involves human beings and their daily transportation of petroleum. But crude oil was gushing into the environment long before humans existed. The first oil spills were produced by nature itself. We can't stop nature and put an end to oil-spills, but we can most certainly prevent man-created oil-spills like for example, the Exxon Valdez. Believe it or not, the Exxon Valdez's captain, Joseph Hazelwood had been drinking during the sailing of the Valdez. Because of his bad habit, millions of animals had to sacrifice their lives and because of his little mistake, billions of dollars were wasted to clean up his mess. The damage of an oil-spill goes deeper than any sea, higher than any sky. The oil doesn't stay in one place, but moves along with the flow of the waters. Shortly after the Exxon Valdez incident, the oil traveled far, tainting shorelines on the Kenai Peninsula, the Alaska Peninsula, and scores of islands. In all, the spill fouled 1,200 miles of coastline. That's not all. The dangers of petroleum to wildlife are well established. Seabirds can become too heavily coated with oil to fly and when they try to clean the oil from their feathers with their beaks, it poisons them. Sea otters and seals contaminated with oil may suffer from injuries in the major organs and these conditions are often fatal. Animals such as eagles, bears, wolves and foxes that eat the oil-soaked carcasses washed up on the shore get themselves contaminated with the crude oil. Of course, fish can be damaged directly by the oil, or also indirectly by its effect on the plants and organisms that make up their food chain. y that most people were unconcerned about until the disaster of the Exxon Valdez. The Valdez s
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Approximate Word count = 1426
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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