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NRDA Summary (update) - 24 JAN 2010

On the evening of December 23, 2009, the tanker escort tug PATHFINDER ran
aground on Bligh Reef, Prince William Sound, Alaska. The 136 foot tug is owned
by Crowley Marine Services.  The PATHFINDER is a docking and escort tug for the
Trans Alaska Pipeline System.  The vessel had completed an ice survey and was
heading back to its port in Valdez when the vessel struck the reef.  The tug
cleared the reef within 45 minutes under its own power and anchored in a
sheltered location south of Busby Island.  After lightering the diesel fuel, the
tug was towed and moored at the Valdez Petroleum Terminal. 

Analysis of the vessel and the volume of diesel recovered revealed that two
tanks with a total capacity of 33,500 gallons were breached and a total of about
6400 gallons was spilled.  Sheens up to 150-feet wide by one mile long were
observed at the anchorage location and east of Glacier Island. 

NOAA, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Alaska Departments of Fish and
Game, Natural Resources, Environmental Conservation, and Law evaluated possible
impacts to natural resources from the spill and concluded that given the volume
of diesel spilled and the weather conditions, shallow rocky communities, fish,
marine mammals and birds were unlikely to have suffered significant effects from
this spill.  

This spill highlights the challenges of response and assessment of oil spills in
Alaska and remote areas such as the Arctic.  These challenges include the size
of the area, lack of daylight, and severe weather.  Bligh Reef is the site of
the 1989 grounding and spill from the tanker Exxon Valdez.