As seen in the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico last year and in ExxonMobil's pipeline spill in Montana this summer, the public expects accurate and timely information about oil spills and the efforts to clean them up.

...despite the wetlands' half-mile proximity to the bay of the Beaufort Sea. An elevated gravel road acted as a dike to spilled oil, they said. The discharge in cold temperatures was in the form of slushy oil and the semi-solids were deposited...

...23,604 gallons of fuel this afternoon. They'll also boom the ship - surround it with buoys that will contain any spilled oil, Wilson said. The salvage effort, which ferry and Coast Guard officials call a "unified command," is conducted...

...disease that other herring populations manage to withstand - a vulnerability that may be rooted in their exposure to spilled oil. The region's herring spawned on oiled beaches several weeks after the spill. Small amounts of oil - as low as 1...

...extended seasons of darkness, hurricane-strength storms and pervasive fog. The slow pace of natural dispersion means spilled oil would linger longer. Decision-makers are hampered because good scientific information exists for only a few species...

...mussels and other invertebrate species. Though pink salmon have since recovered, she said, unexpectedly high levels of spilled oil remain in the sound, posing a threat to ducks, mussels and sea otters.

...was being wrongly singled out and punished. The company said there was no basis for believing that a vessel that spilled oil in the past would spill in the future. Compiled from staff and wire service reports.

...Prince William Sound in March 1989, creating America's largest tanker spill. The estimated 11 million gallons of spilled oil fouled the sound, contaminated an estimated 1,300 miles of shoreline, killed marine creatures and disrupted commercial...

...Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989. A 1994 study by the fisheries service estimated that about 70 percent of the spilled oil had evaporated into the air or biodegraded in the ocean or on shore, and 14 percent had been recovered through cleanup...

...of the rest of the nation, according to a national forecast released by NOAA last week. Report: Tides could spread spilled oil SAN FRANCISCO - Tides predicted to peak shortly after Thanksgiving could wash sticky, thick balls of oil off beaches...