Exxon Valdez Research Paper

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There are five modes of transporting goods; pipeline, truck, air, rail and finally shipping. The Oceans of the world are used by the United States and other countries to import and export goods. Roughly about ninety percent of the world trade is shipped on the open water. The reason why shipping is used the most out of the five modes of transit is due to quantity and price. Countries aren’t going to spend millions of dollars exporting products through air travel or on rails and gain a small income from that exchange. Shipping gives more space for more profit, and all the major importuning countries have ports to accommodate this. With all the profit coming from shipping there is also a safety factor that can stop and prevent shipping, which natural disasters caused by Mother Nature and anthropogenic. There are 120,000 vessels in the world’s fleets that participate in either fishing or importing and exporting. Tankers, bulk carriers and container ships are the most important means of transportation of our time. There are 2,800 ports in the world, where all that trade comes through. With all the products transported over oceans there is on in particular…show more content…
The Exxon Valdez was a nine hundred eighty six foot vessel holding 53,094,510 gallons or 1,264,155 barrels of oil. After the Exxon Valdez cleared the Valdez Narrows, the ship encountered icebergs in its shipping lane. The Captain of the Exxon Valdez Captain Joe Hazelwood ordered the ship out of its shipping lane to ovoid the icebergs. Shipping lanes are placed, so ships can pass through waters safely and efficiently. If a ship goes off course of the shipping line it is jeopardizing the ships structure and crew. In this case the Exxon Valdez was a victim of a Human error. At approximately 12:04 am on March 24th, the Exxon Valdez hit a Blight Reef causing the ship to start spilling curded oil into the Alaska’s Prince William

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