Scientists Disagree on Oil Spill’s Effects

Oil from the 1989 grounding of the Exxon Valdez supertanker in Prince William Sound will kill or stunt Alaskan pink salmon for generations to come, government scientists say. “Those buried oil pockets are sort of like land mines,” said Jeffrey Short, a scientist with the National Marine Fisheries Service. The service’s researchers presented their findings at a conference in Anchorage. Despite a massive cleanup of the 10.1-million-gallon oil spill, the salmon are still in jeopardy and will be into the 21st century, the researchers said. Scientists hired by Exxon insist that there were few or no adverse effects on salmon from the spill.