Efforts to stem the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Efforts to stem the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Efforts to stem the "Deepwater Horizon" oil spill were ongoing from the time that the "Deepwater Horizon" exploded on 4/20/2010 until the well was sealed by a cap on July 15, 2010. Various species of dolphins and other mammals (61 casualties), birds (2,095 casualties), and the endangered sea turtles (467 casualties) have been killed either directly or indirectly by the oil spill. The "Deepwater Horizon" spill has surpassed in volume the 1989 "Exxon Valdez" oil spill as the largest ever to originate in U.S.-controlled waters; it is comparable to the 1979 Ixtoc
Jakob Maersk oil spill Jakob Maersk oil spill The Jakob Maersk was an oil tanker registered in Denmark that struck a sand bank on January 29, 1975 while entering the port of Leixões, Portugal, causing a major oil spill. Built in 1966, the tanker was owned by Maerskline Navigation Company, a subsidiary of A.P. Moller, and contracted by Shell Oil Company consisting of a crew of seventeen at the time of the accident. Seven of those seventeen crew members died during the explosion. "Jakob Maersk" was carrying 88,000 tons of crude oil from Kharg Island in Iran while entering the Port of Leixões in