On March 24, (1) enormous ship called (2) Exxon Valdez was carrying about 50 million gallons of (3) petroleum from (4) Alaskan oil fields. In Prince William Sound (5) captain ran (6) ship aground. (7) ship's tanks broke open. 10.8 gallons of petroleum poured out. It took three years to clean (8) oil. In (9) court case about (10) accident (11) judges ruled that (12) Exxon shipping company was responsible for it and had to pay $ 900 million in (13) damages. Even that sum was not enough to pay for cleaning up the Sound. (14) total cost of all (15) workers, equipment and research for (16) cleanup effort was about $2.5 billion. (17) tourist passing through Prince William Sound today would see no (18) sign of (19) 1989 oil spill. (20) coast is once more (21) spectacular, wild place with clean water beaches. However to (22) more expert eye, (23) consequences of (24) oil spill are still visible. For one thing, (25) beaches are even cleaner than normal. (26) workers used (27) hot water to clean off (28) rocks and sand. But in (29) process they killed many kinds of marine plants. Rockweed, for example is (30) brown plant that grows on (31) rocks in (32) shallow water. Before (33) cleanup it was very common along (34) coast, but afterwards it completely disappeared.