Spill Continues Its Devastating Toll on Wildlife

The Exxon oil spill has continued to kill animals and devour pristine waters off southern Alaska, and officials tracking the oil said Wednesday it has covered 9,600 square miles.

The animal death toll also has continued to mount. Workers have collected 22,868 dead, oily birds and 743 sea otters, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported. That represents a fraction of the wildlife killed by the oil, and regional director Walter Stieglitz said: “We’re still counting its victims.”

More than $155 million has been spent by Exxon and the state and federal governments on cleanup since March 24, when the Exxon Valdez ran aground and spilled about 11 million gallons of oil into waters south of the Valdez oil terminal.

Alaska Gov. Steve Cowper appointed a task force Wednesday to investigate the spill and recommend ways to prevent future spills. A new 5-cent tax on each barrel of oil from Alaska will finance the panel, which is made up of five Alaska residents, a former science adviser to three presidents and an environmental scientist.

Oil tracker Marshal Kendziorek of the Department of Environmental Conservation has mapped the spill, and his documents show that 9,600 square miles of southern Alaska coastal waters have been affected by the oil. That makes the country’s largest oil spill as big in size as the state of Vermont, he said.

Oil has spread for eight weeks and has been tracked down Shelikof Strait to Wide Bay, 475 miles from where the Exxon Valdez ran aground, Kendziorek said.