Recovery of seabirds following the Exxon Valdez oil spill: An overview

Following the Exxon Valdez oilspill in March 1989, over 35,000 dead birds were retrieved. Model analyses suggested that actual seabird mortality could have been in the hundreds of thousands, prompting concerns about severe and persistent impacts on populations of several species, especially murres (Uria spp.). Recovery for some populations was projected to take decades. The findings of several studies conducted following the oil spill, however, indicate that these concerns may not be justified. These studies examined colony attendance and reproduction of murres as well as habitat utilization for the prevalent species in Prince William Sound and along the Kenai Peninsula. Surveys of attendance by birds at murre breeding colonies in 1991 indicated no overall differences from prespill attendance levels when colonies were grouped by the degree of oiling in the vicinity. At a large colony in the Barren Islands, where damage was described as especially severe, counts of murres were generally similar to historical estimates made in the late 1970s. In 1990 and 1991, murres breeding at the Barren Islands colony also produced young at levels that were within the range of natural (prespill) variation for this site. Incidental observations indicated that several other species reproduced successfully in oiled areas in Prince William Sound and along the Kenai Peninsula following the spill. 161 refs., 2 figs., 2 tabs