Sea otters rebound from 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska

ANCHORAGE — A federal study of Prince William Sound sea otters affected by crude oil spilled from the Exxon Valdez has concluded that the marine mammals have returned to pre-spill numbers a quarter century after the disaster.

Sea otters feed on clams. Crude oil from the spill remained in sediment for years after the spill and likely contributed to a delay in sea otter recovery, said lead author and research biologist Brenda Ballachey.

“One of the lessons we can take from this is that the chronic effects of oil in the environment can persist for decades,” Ballachey said on Friday.

The 987-foot Exxon Valdez, carrying more than 53 million gallons of Alaska North Slope crude oil, strayed from shipping lanes on March 24, 1989, and struck Bligh Reef. The damaged supertanker leaked 10.8 million gallons. Crude oil flowed southwest along nearshore waters all the way to Kodiak Island.

Responders recovered nearly 1,000 sea otter carcasses from the entire spill area. The estimated number of immediate deaths attributed to the spill ranged from fewer than a thousand to 3,000, Ballachey said.

Sea otters rely on their thick fur to survive in cold water. Fur covered by oil loses its insulating value. A sea otter with oiled fur must groom itself, which leads to the ingestion of oil and causes other problems, including time taken away for feeding, Ballachey said.

In the years after the spill, she said, chronic problems connected to lingering oil likely may have killed as many sea otters as in the first year.

“Our modeling exercises suggest that the number of otters that died from chronic exposure was close to the same number as died from acute exposure,” she said.