AMERICAN RESILIENCE: How a small Alaska town fought for survival after the Exxon Valdez Oil spill dumped 11 million gallons of oil into the ocean and nearly wiped out its fishing industry

Get the Full StoryMike Blake Reuters

Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker off the coast of Alaska, hit a reef in March of 1989, spilling more than 11 million gallons of oil into the ocean.

The spill's initial impacts devastated wildlife, killing hundreds of thousands of marine animals and billions of fish eggs.

Lingering oil in the ocean was linked to dwindling herring and salmon populations.

In the three decades since the spill, Herring fishermen have turned to other breeds, locations to fish, and entirely different lines forms of work.

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Cordova is a town on the east coast of Prince William Sound in Alaska. A sound is a section of the ocean that is between coastlines.

Nikki Kahn The Washington Post via Getty Images

Source: The New York Times, World Atlas

In the 1970s and 1980s, Cordova was a hot spot for commercial herring and salmon fishing. 800 of the town's 2,100 people were fishermen. Their collective catch amounted to as much as 40 million.

Joel W. Rogers CORBIS Corbis via Getty Images

Source: The New York Times

On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker hit a reef in Prince William Sound, spilling more than 11 million gallons of oil into the ocean.

Courtesy NOAA Handout via REUTERS

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

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