Exxon Valdez

The Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on 24 March 1989, spilling about 11 million US gallons of crude oil and fouling 1,300 miles of shoreline. The disaster killed hundreds of thousands of seabirds and marine mammals and became the benchmark US tanker-pollution case. It prompted the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which mandated double hulls for tankers in US waters, and shaped the IMO’s MARPOL Annex I double-hull timetable. It remains a reference point for spill response and liability.