14 DAY TRIAL // In late February, the news that pockets of oil dating back to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill had been discovered along Alaska's coast made headlines.
Recent information on the topic says that, although ecosystems in the spill's proximity are yet to shake off all traces of oil, the sea otter population in the area has somehow managed to make a full recovery.
Thus, a recent paper authored by researchers working with the United States Geological Survey says that Alaska's Prince William Sound is now home to about as many otters as before the spill.
As previously reported, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill caused about 11 million gallons (40 million liters) of oil to work their way in the waters of the Prince William Sound in the Gulf of Alaska.
At the time it occurred, the incident was quickly dubbed the largest oil spill to have ever occurred in the history of the United States.
It managed to hold on to this title until 2010, when it was dethroned by the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, which spilled a whopping 200 million gallons (750 million liters) of oil.
Although there are no official numbers, specialists estimate that the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill killed several thousand sea otters, Live Science reports.
This likely happened because the oil got into these animals' fur, and thus affected its ability to provide insulation, the same source details.
According to the specialists who analyzed the incident's impact on local wildlife, the fact that the spill occurred in an area documented to be prime sea otter habitat must have also helped up the death toll.
The United States Geological Survey researchers explain that, as shown by several studies carried out in the Prince Willing Sound in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the local sea otter population did not exactly have an easy time recovering from the disaster.
All things considered, this was probably due to the fact that whatever traces of oil remained in these animals' natural habitat continued to affect them long after the spill had occurred.
Hence, it took nearly a quarter of a century for the sea otter population in the Prince William Sound to rebound to levels documented before the incident.
“Although recovery time-lines varied widely among species, our work shows that recovery of species vulnerable to long-term effects of oil spills can take decades,” research biologist and study lead author Brenda Ballachey told the press in a recent interview.