With Alaska natives and others clamoring for the government to
seek an additional $100 million in damages related to the Exxon
Valdez oil spill, government scientists have just released new
findings that show the disaster was, as more than one blogger
put it, “the gift that keeps on giving.” In islands right in the
path of the 17-year-old spill, researchers found that oil was
distributed throughout the intertidal zone between the high- and
low-water marks, says an AP story. This is surprising because
the common wisdom was that most of the oil floated, on high
tide, to the top end of that zone. Instead, half of it is being
found down below the halfway point, where otters, birds and
other critters forage regularly, as described in the press
release on the study led by National Marine Fisheries Service
researcher Jeffrey Short: (T)he researchers estimated that in a
given year, a sea otter — digging three pits a day searching for
clams and other prey — would probably come into contact with
Exxon Valdez oil at lea