effect on the environment
the short-term effect on large animals and birds were the easiest to estimate as the bodies could be counted,although this can never be a complete estimate as many will sink and be lost. it was estimated that about 250000 birds were casualties (kingston,2002). some breeding colonies have recovered rapidly which suggests either an overestimate of the casualties or an influx from out-side the region. in contrast,another report claims that bird population had not recovered fully after 9 year. other large animals killed were sea otters (2800) and harbour seals (3000). as the water is deep (100 m) in most parts of prince william sound the effect of the spill on fish stocks was minimal; it was the intertidal and subtidal communities that suffered. many of the inter-tidal animals and plants were also harmed by the hot-water clean-up limpet populations which had not recovered by 1991 and fig.11.2 shows the effect on the dominant seaweed coverge, fucus gardneri (stekoll and deysher,2000). f.gaedneri (silva) is the dominant macroalga of the intertidal area in the region of the exxon valdez spill (fig.11.2). the f.gardneri cover was reduced in all oiled areas and plants were not as reproductively competent as in unoiled areas