DeSotoSky
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- Mar 21, 2011
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Hello and welcome to the Sunday Picture Show. Share your Buck knives with others by posting pictures of them here. New or old, plain or custom, user or safe queen, one or a collection, we love to see them all. This weekly tradition was started in 2010 by ItsTooEarly (Armand Hernandez) and Oregon (Steve Dunn). Help keep the tradition alive. Feel free to click that 'LIKE' but lets not let it replace discussing and complimenting each others knives. DeSotoSky (Roger Yost)
On this Day, March 24, 1989, The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
The Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Prince Williaam Sound on the Southern coast of Alaska East of Anchorage. The resulting spill of over 10 million gallons of crude oil was to be the worst environmental disaster for the US at the time. The spill was later exceeded by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Disasters like this always have multiple causative actions. The captain retired to his cabin just after leaving the oil terminal at about 9:30pm and was said to be sleeping off a "bender" but was never proven. Regardless, he retired while the ship was still in dangerous coastal night time waters. The bridge was manned "alone" by a 3rd mate when the reef was struck just after midnight. That was a violation in itself. There were supposed icebergs in the area and the ship was navigated out of the normal shipping lane. The reef was marked with a radar reflector but the Valdez's navigational radar had been non functional for a year, deemed unnecessary and too expensive to repair. Due to the remoteness of the area there was inadequate containment equipment readily available. Of course in the aftermath the was a lot of finger pointing and law suits making it all the way to the Supreme Court, Justice Alito recused himself because he held a large amount of Exxon stock.
What Were the Impacts?
The spill affected more than 1,300 miles of shoreline, with immense impacts for fish and wildlife and their habitats, as well as for local industries and communities.The oil killed: an estimated 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, as many as 22 killer whales, billions of salmon and herring eggs
More than 25 years since the spill, the following species remain in a “Not Recovering” or “Unknown” status:,
Killer whales, Kittlitz’s murrelets, Marbled murrelets, Pigeon guillemots
The Valdez was the largest tanker (987') built on the west coast at the time (1986) and was of single hull design.
$30 million and a year later the Valdez was relaunched as the Exxon Mediterranean.
Regulations were passed requiring all new tanker construction to be of double hull design starting 1993.
Read the history of ownership and names the Veldez sailed under. It's life ended on a beach in an Indian ship breaking yard in 2012.
In popular Culture: Anyone remember the 1995 Kevin Costner film Waterworld? At the time it was the most expensive movie ever made . All the Polar Ice Caps have melted in this post apocalyptic time leaving most of the world covered by water. The Smokers are a pirate group whose operating base is the Deez, the rusted hulk of the supertanker Exxon Valdez.
Some fancy Vanguards
Burlwood, Palm, Corian, Ironwood
Ramhorn, Master Series, Cocobolo, Ion Fusion
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Eco-Friendly Paperstone Vantage with Pocket Pals
