Red Light to Starboard: Recalling the Exxon Valdez Disaster
By Angela Day; Washington State University Press; 2014; 278 pages; $19.95
Last year marked the 25th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, the results of which still reverberate across Alaska. An area once home to thriving fisheries has seen some stocks return and even exceed previous levels while others remain closed a quarter-century after the cleanup was declared complete.
Remnant oil remains easy to find on beaches. Wildlife impacts vary greatly. Some species are struggling, some recovering, and a couple are thriving. Insufficient baseline information about the region's ecosystem prior to the accident prevents scientists from fully understanding the spill's impacts.
What is sure at this point is that one mistake made on a late winter night in poor sailing conditions by a reportedly drunken captain altered the ecological balance of an enormous part of Alaska. It also changed the lives of thousands of working men and women who depended on that environment for their livelihood. Even now, few feel they have been properly compensated for their losses.
The story of one such individual forms the backbone of "Red Light to Starboard" by Angela Day, a book that weaves personal experience within the larger narrative. Day presents this history largely through its impacts on her now-husband Bobby Day, a commercial fisherman who ultimately lost his livelihood because one ship took a wrong turn. In doing so, she offers a deeply human reading of an event more commonly written about in terms of its magnitude and the widespread damage. It's broad history on a small scale.
Tracking a disaster
Day opens with a brief telling of the Exxon Valdez's collision with Bligh Reef and the realization that the worst nightmare of both supporters and foes of Prince William Sound oil shipping was coming to fruition. As most histories of the spill note, during the initial days following the grounding there was remarkably good weather and calm seas. Yet attempts to contain the oil were hampered by short staffing and a lack of preparation by Exxon, Alyeska Pipeline Services Co. and the various state agencies that should have been ready for such a contingency.
Tracking backward, Day reconstructs the battle fought over bringing the trans-Alaska pipeline to its terminus in Valdez. While civic boosters in that town sought the development, residents of nearby Cordova, a town completely dependent on fishing, opposed it, fearing what a spill might do to their way of life. The rift between the two communities was deep before the incident, so it wasn't long before accusations were flying and tenuous friendships turned acrimonious.
The middle of this breach is where Day's husband, Bobby, found himself. A lifelong resident of Prince William Sound, he grew up in the tiny and no longer existent community of Dayville. At a young age he caught the fishing bug and as an adult skippered his own fishing boat.
Having lived in both Valdez and Cordova, Bobby Day understood both sides of the pipeline dispute. While he loved and knew the Sound and sympathized with his fellow fishermen's fears of a massive spill, Bobby broke with them by supporting pipeline development. He welcomed the economic growth and was convinced that oil and fisheries could share the waters, and that safety and good corporate citizenship mattered to the petroleum companies. His confidence would be crushed by the spill, by Exxon's poor handling of the cleanup, and by judicial decisions that ultimately reduced fines against the company to what he and his fellow fishermen considered a pittance.
As the book progresses, Day zigzags back and forth through time. Her account of the early spill response is damning. Rapid containment failed while Exxon and the state bickered over responsibility and protocol. Residents realized, "Three critical days had passed since the spill. All the mobilizing, organizing approvals, disapprovals, arguing, meetings, and marshaling of equipment had accomplished pitifully little." No more than 72 hours after the Exxon Valdez ran aground, "locals began to acknowledge they had lost the battle."
Woven into the story of the long painful summer of 1989 are lengthy sections on the history of Valdez and Cordova and the Day family's role in the region's growth. The author also explores how fisheries and oil development played into the battle for statehood and Alaska's subsequent economic trajectory.
'Exceptional narrative history'
At the center, however, is her husband's story. Beginning with the arrival of his father, whose family came north looking for opportunity, and his mother, who arrived as a young lady seeking adventure, Day describes Bobby's mostly idyllic childhood in Prince William Sound and his shift into commercial fishing after his parents' cannery shut down. For Bobby Day, fishing the Sound became his life, a point his wife drives home to excess; her overly repetitive mentioning of Bobby's love of his home is the only lapse in this otherwise beautifully written book.
Day alternates between recounting Bobby's life as a fisherman and the horrific summer of 1989, when he sailed about the Sound aimlessly, fishing what few openings occurred, lending aid to the cleanup, witnessing the spreading destruction, and coming to the realization that the life he had built was over. Within a few years, his fishing operation would be bankrupt and he would relocate permanently to Washington state.
Day closes with a summary of the endless legal maneuverings that have transpired since the spill, forcing many fishermen to go the way of her husband.
"Red Light to Starboard" is an exceptional piece of narrative history. Its lessons are many. At a time when many Alaskans are broadly supportive of oil drilling off the state's Arctic coast -- where there is absolutely no infrastructure to deal with an accident -- it would be prudent to heed Day's warnings, slow down and be ready next time.
David A. James is a Fairbanks writer and critic.