The Exxon Valdez oil tanker, carrying more than 53 million gallons of oil, runs onto a reef on the southern coast of Alaska. Nearly 11 million gallons of oil are spilled into Prince William Sound, making it one of the largest oil spills in the nation’s history. The oil spreads to about 1,300 miles of shoreline and is blamed for the deaths of more than 250,000 birds, sea otters, fish, and other marine animals. The National Transportation Safety Board concludes that the accident resulted from a combination of pilot fatigue, failure of navigation assistance onboard, and ineffective oversight of vessel traffic by the Coast Guard.