Social Indicators Study of Alaskan Coastal Villages. 6. Analysis of the EXXONVALDEZ Spill Area, 1988-1992

摘要

The Exxon Valdez foundered on Bligh Reef, just outside the Valdez Arm of PrinceWilliam Sound, on March 24, 1989. Coincidentally, when the accident occurred, the author and some research associates were completing a third wave of research begun in 1987 among 31 villages in coastal Alaska; the goal was to determine the consequences from oil-related activities on village economies and societies. In the winter of 1988, they had conducted 68 interviews in the two Kodiak Island villages. They had conducted another 30 interviews among panel members (sample respondents who has been interviewed initially in the winter of 1988) immediately prior to the spill. Five months after the spill, they returned to the Kodiak Island villages, but they also expanded their research to eight other villages directly affected by the oil. Between the late summer of 1989 and the early winter of 1991, they made two more research trips to the affected villages. In the course of these three research trips, they interviewed 1,216 respondents, 724 with questionnaires and 394 with protocols. Some persons were interviewed and reinterviewed (panel members). They also interviewed public officials--appointed and elected--and other public people in the villages, such as school principals, leaders of civic organizations, and the like.