Exxon Valdez oil spill State of Alaska's "Exxon Valdez" Oil Spill Trustee Council, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club. Multiple factors have been identified as contributing to the incident: Captain Joseph Hazelwood, who was widely reported to have been drinking heavily that night, was not at the controls when the ship struck the reef. However, as the senior officer, he was in command of the ship even though he was asleep in his bunk. In light of the other findings, investigative reporter Greg Palast stated in 2008, "Forget the drunken skipper fable. As to
Exxon Valdez oil spill contracted during the actual crisis. Several weeks after the spill, "Saturday Night Live" aired a pointed sketch featuring Kevin Nealon, Phil Hartman, and Victoria Jackson as cleanup workers struggling to scrub the oil off of animals and rocks on a beach in Prince William Sound. In the 1995 film "Waterworld", the "Exxon Valdez" is the flagship of the movie's villain, "The Deacon," the leader of a band of scavenging raiders. In the ship is a portrait of their patron saint, Joseph Hazelwood. In the second Forrest Gump novel, "Gump and Co." by Winston Groom, Gump commandeers the "Exxon Valdez" and