Total Direct Mortality of Seabirds from the Exxon Vuldez Oil Spill

Studv History: This study originated from a need to develop a better estimate of the number of seabirds killed as a result of the oil spill to support the federal government’s claim for damages against Exxon and to provide data for developing and implementing a restoration strategy. Federal and State scientists and experts ranked this study as the most significant of the bird studies in 1990. The study was performed under a contract awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice, but the Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service reimbursed the Department of Justice for the contract and was responsible for its supervision. The study was highly controversial because it involved killing 219 seabirds, immersing them in oil, and placing them in Prince William Sound to track their drift patterns. The study findings, along with other data, were used to extrapolate the likely bird death toll attributable to the Exxon Vuldez oil spill. This study was not finalized until 1996 when it was published by the American Fisheries Society. Abstract: An estimate of total mortality of seabirds from the Exxon Vuldez oil spill was derived from numbers of carcasses collected on shore. The processes leading to carcass collection were modeled to account for sinking of oiled birds at sea, removal from the beach by scavengers, and, incomplete search effort. To determine rates of loss of oiled birds at sea, radio-tagged carcasse