ers in oiled bays rose to values much higher than prespill levels. Of the 12 species that exhibited evidence of initial impact from the oil spill, 7 (58%) had clearly recovered by 1998. The other 5 show signs that eventually their population numbers will reach full recovery. The accounts of Wiem and Page make several startling points. They have exhibited that the real effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill are quite different from the expectations many had eleven years ago. Many people, including knowledgeable scientists, believed it would take hundreds of years for the effects of the spill to wash away. Yet, the environment of Prince William Sound has clearly shown its ability to fight back in a much shorter amount of time. In the case of pink salmon and roughly half of the sea birds considered their studies show no initial impact created by the oil spill. Also, in the case of sea otters and the other half of sea birds considered, there was an initial detrimental effect from the spill. Yet, in all of these cases recovery has either been accomplished or is well underway. The question is how did the environment of Price William Sound contradict overwhelming expectations for long-lasting effects from the disaster. It is difficult to determine exactly how the environment made such a quick recovery. In his book The Way Things Ought to Be, Rush Limbaugh states, "Take the Exxon Valdez spill. We were told that the cleanup would take hundreds of years. Now we see that through natural processes and the incredibly resilient powers of the planet, the tide has taken care of much of the damage that man didn't clean up." It seems as if the findings of Wiem and Page concur with Limbaugh's statement. Even though the coastline of Prince William Sound received some help from the cleanup crews of man, it appears that the environment played a large role in its own recovery. The areas high winds and crashing waves were highly importan...
