“The oil we were shown at Sleepy Bay spilled into Prince William Sound, March 24th 1989, just after midnight when the Exxon Valdez, a ship the size of three football fields, ran aground on a reef. Even though the reef was plainly marked on charts in the wheelhouse. Eventually oil from the tankers ruptured hull spread over 1300 miles of Alaskan coastline. The death toll was staggering. A quarter of a million seabirds, 3000 otters, hundreds of bald eagles and despite Exxon’s attempts to clean up the mess, government scientists say oil from the spill continues to take a toll on marine life in Prince William Sound.”

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Hi everyone! Welcome back. In that introduction you heard a speaker from 60 Minutes talk about the Exxon Valdez spill and also about the impact it made on the environment, ten years after the catastrophe took place. If you want to access that you will find the link within the transcript. 

In today’s episode, we’ll also talk about oil spills off the coast of the United States. Two of the other biggest ones in history actually. But before we get to that, let’s go through a joke, we’ll talk about the expression spill the beans, which is an expression I love in English that’s also very common, and do some pronunciation drills. So stay tuned!