Herring and Oil Don't Mix

摘要

In the early morning hours of March 24,1989, the tanker "Exxon Valdez" went aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of oil into this historically productive ecosystem. Many species were affected, one of thosebeing the commercially valuable Pacific herring population.For herring, the spill couldn't have come at a worst time, since the fish were starting to make their way into the Sound to spawn. Oil can have a devastating effect on spawning populations, as evidenced in the Cosco Busan oil spill in San Francisco Bay in 2007; herring eggs near the spill were almost all dead or deformed.