Exxon Valdez Capt. Joseph Hazelwood dies at 75

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Joseph Hazelwood, the captain of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker that ran aground more than three decades ago in Alaska, causing one of the worst oil spills in U.S. history, has died, the New York Times reported. He was 75.

He died in July after struggling with COVID-19 and cancer, his nephew Sam Hazelwood told the newspaper for a story reported Friday. Hazelwood's family members and business associates did not respond to The Associated Press for comment.

The Exxon Valdez, a 987-foot (301-meter) tanker, grounded on Alaska’s Bligh Reef at 12:04 a.m. on March 24, 1989, spewing nearly 11 million gallons (41 million liters) of oil into the rich fishing waters of Prince William Sound. Currents and storms carried the crude over 1,200 miles (1,931 kilometers) of Alaska coastline.

The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council estimates the spill killed a quarter million seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, up to 22 killer whales and billions of fish eggs. It took years for the fish numbers to rebound following the spill, and oil can still be found under the surface of some beaches in Prince William Sound.

The grounding, along with other oil spills in 1989 and 1990, prompted passage of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which strengthened how the U.S. government responds to oil spills. Exxon Valdez was surpassed as the nation's worst oil spill when Deepwater Horizon exploded in 2010, releasing 168 million gallons (635 million liters) of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

An Anchorage jury awarded nearly 33,000 plaintiffs affected by the Alaska spill $5 billion in punitive damages in 1994, but that amount was cut in half by other courts on appeals by Exxon. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court cut the punitive damages to $507.5 million.

Hazelwood,...