News Feature - 2nd prize
Natalie Fobes
National Geographic
National Geographic
01 January, 1989
Native Alaskan, Sonya Knight, weeps for the casualties of an oil spill that killed more than 1,000 sea otters and about 240,000 birds. In March, the worst oil disaster in the history of the US made headlines around world when the Exxon Valdez ran aground. An area the size of New Jersey in Prince William Sound was covered with a thick blanket of oil and 1,609km of the state's rocky coast became badly contaminated.