Oil Bioremediation In Alaska History

On March 24, 1989, one of the most detrimental oil spills in Alaskan history occurred. The spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, which was a common area of the coast of Alaska for importing and exporting goods such as oil. A ship named the Exxon Valdez was exporting an estimated 1.2 million barrels to Long Beach, California when it suddenly crashed into the Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef. This caused the ship to come apart and have the oil being carried inside of it to leak into the ocean. An estimated 11 million gallons spilled; luckily, much of the oil evaporated after the spill; however, a large amount of oil still remained in the ocean. To completely eliminate the oil in the ocean, biologists, physicists, chemists, zoologists, vets, and physiologists came together in attempt to conjure a solutions. Biologists and chemists primarily dealt with creating the solution for cleaning up the spill. Physicists calculated the densities and total amount of oil that was spilled into the ocean. Zoologists, vets, and physiologists often rescued and took care of the animals that was effected by the

Only 1% of the oil from spill, which had occurred in 1989, was left in 1991. Although it probably took more than it would have if traditional clean up methods were employed, it was a more natural and environmentally friendly way to get rid of the oil. If given the ability to choose amongst the methods, I would have chosen to use both bioremediation and traditional clean up methods. I would first use bioremediation because it gets rid of majority of the contaminants and pollutants. In order to get rid of the remaining qualities of contaminants, the traditional clean up methods could be used. It would be more beneficial to use bioremediation to remove all of the pollutants that can be removed with its use first because it is healthier for the