Behind The Scenes Of The Exxon Valdez Tradgety

Behind the Scene of the Exxon Valdez Tragedy

By Kyle Knott

Period 3

If you haven't heard of the Exxon Valdez then I will fill you in on what it was. The Exxon Valdez was an oil tanker that hit the Bligh Reef off the coast of Alaska. Because the ship hit the reef, 11 to 30 million gallons of oil spilled into the ocean. Well I was there for it all. The main cause of the spill was in my opinion the captain drinking will running the ship.

The captain had been drinking that night and he decided that he was not feeling well and was very tired so he left another person in charge of the ship while he went and took a nap. While the captain was taking a nap a watcher came in and told the person running the ship that there was something up ahead. The person running the ship did not seem too concerned by this notification. In fact he seemed more interested in his drawing that he was doing. The watcher came in again and told him and then he finally decided to try to fix the problem. By that time it was too late, the ship crashed into the Bligh Reef. That is probably the reason the ship hit land. The real question is could the organizations have done anything to prevent millions of gallons of oil from spilling into the ocean.

There were many fishermen that had tried to help by calling the major organizations involved in this tragedy but they would not let them help. The major organizations probably could have acted a little faster too. There is suppose to be on the spot cleaning up the oil within 10 hours and it took a whole lot longer then that.

This environmental tragedy could have been avoided in many ways. And there are many questions to be asked like why didn't the organizations act faster or why wouldn't the guy running the ship act faster when someone tells him that there is something dead

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