Looking for Killer Whales 26 Years After the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (Part 1) | National Geographic

In 1989, the largest oil spill in US history destroyed a remote Alaskan wilderness. That was a long time ago. Most people say the sound is back to normal, except for this man. He's been studying killer whales caught up in the spill. He believes they're still dying, and it could be because of oil.

"Oh my god! Smells like a gas station."

Check it out! We load 2,000 pounds of provisions onto a sailboat and set out to reach ground zero for the spill. Here's the view.

"Yeah, I think this should show the Cape. Yes, go around Cape Resurrection Point. Across, once we get inside a capable ranking here, we'll see how far away until we're safe. Nine to ten hours is what it should take, with that south forecast. Now, it is going to be building ten right at us, but yeah, we should be able to beat it. Gotta go, gotta go right now!"

"Yo, morning. Tuesday today, 113 on to be building to 12 feet in the afternoon. Late tonight, southwest wind 30 knots, 14 feet."

There's remote, and then there's where we're going. We have to cross the Gulf of Alaska. It's a place where the waves can build 240 feet. Our boat is 36 feet. It's a great boat, but you wouldn't want to take anything smaller on a journey like this.

"Alright, so we have a little bit of weather. We were able to make it out. It was good, because it was now or never. The forecast... man, look at that wonder water. 300 Walker!"

"Oh, I need a remake me to read. Oh my god, like wow, look at that! Know if you can see that my hand, but it is coming down hard and fast. We're seeing lightning off in the distance. We're on a sailboat with a mast that reaches up into the sky."

After a rough day at sea, we finally reached the protected waters of the Prince William Sound. This is where a tanker unleashed a catastrophic amount of crude oil back in 1989.

"Should be good. We'll shut her down if we're done. Now that we're here, we'll settle in and try to make contact with the team who's been studying the whales that were caught up in the spill."

"It's been a wet, wet day. And we hope you have money."

"I'm Nato. Anna TOA, Sweet Babboo."

"Do you think Sweet Babboo is your nickname?"

"He's who I would not want to answer that call. She was about me. You must be another research belt."

"Well, I don't know. We're not getting him, so it's after nine o'clock. It's been a long day. We just have to start fresh tomorrow."

Some teams are literally on their knees using absorbent towels to remove the rocky beaches. So this is from the spill, and you have to... Looks like fishing boats trying to clean up a stream of crude oil.

"And swimming directly towards that crude, you have at least two killer whales here. You have a puffin where it was white. It's blind. I mean, it is astonishing."

"You have oil hitting one wreath and spreading 1,500 miles. The largest oil spill in the United States at the time."

"But it makes you wonder, what are the long-term effects of that last spill?"

"What's left today smells like a gas station. There's this big social disruption and then some of the survivors are... Hill also. We got big fins! We got the killer whales. There's something to it."

"You can still smell it to this day. You can still smell it."