Publication Source: Peninsula News Review
Source Link: View the full original article >>
Author: Christine van Reeuwyk
Elizabeth May, MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands and Leader of the Green Party of Canada, hoped to spark interest in the anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill with a picturesque press conference Friday morning.
On March 24, 23 years ago, the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, Calif. struck the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound and spilled 260,000 to 750,000 barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Alaska.
“The life of that ecosystem has not yet recovered,” May said Friday at the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre in Sidney. “There is still damage. It is being monitored by scientists that the bird life has not returned, that the life of the ocean waters have not been restored to the condition which they were 23 years ago today, on the eve of the Exxon Valdez spill.”