EXERCISE 8

1. On March 24,1989, an enormous ship called the Exxon Valdez was traveling along the
coast of Alaska. It was carryng about 50 million gallons of petroleum from the Alaskan
oil fields. In Prince William Sound, the captain ran the ship aground. Some of the ships
tanks broke open and about 10.8 million gallons of petroleum poured out into the sound.
It took three years and over 10.000 workers to clean up the oil. In te court case about the
accident, the judges decided that the Exxon Company was responsible. The company had
to pay $900 million for damages. Even that large sum was not enough to pay for all the
workers, equipment,and research that was necessary. The total cost of the clean-up effort
was about $ 2.5 billion.
Topic : Oil spill
Main Idea : the ship tanks who carryng petroleum was broke open and make the
petroleum poured out into the sound
2. A tourist passing through Prince William Sound today probably would see no sign of the
1989 oil spill. The coast is once more a spectacular, wild place with clean water and
beaches. However,to a more experienced eye, the scenery is not quite the same as before.
For one thing, the beaches are too clean. The workers used hot water to clean oil off the
rocks and sand. But in the process they also killed many kinds of marine plants.
Rockweed , for example, is a brown plant that grows on rocks and in shallow water.
Before the clean-up, it was very common along that coast, but afterwards it almost
completely disappeared. Another difference is the decrease in the bird population. Over
half million birds were especially unfortunate. Researchers guess that their populations
declined by up to 70-80 %.
Topic : Impact of oil spill
Main Idea : direct result of the oil spill make the coast more spectacular. But, also killed
many kind of marine and bird population
3. As scientists study the effect of the Valdez oil spill, they are discovering new problems.
The oil not only caused the immediate deaths of many animal. It also had longer term
effect on many other animals. The harbor seal (a marine mammal) is one example. At
first, scientists hoped that the seals would stay away from the areas where there was oil.
But instead, the seal swam right throught the oil and came out on oily beaches. Scientist
noted that these seals seemed sick, and in fact many disapeared. At an earlier counting in
1975, there wee about 13,000 harbor seals in Prince William Sound. After the spill, they
suffered some brain damage. This may have caused the seal to become confused and
drown. The oil also seems to have affected the ability of female seals to have healty
babies. In the year after the soil spill, there were many more deaths than usual among
baby seals

Topic : new problem of oil spill

Main Idea : The scientists study doscovering if the oil spill also had longer effect on
many othe animals