Salvage crews are working to transfer thousands of gallons of diesel fuel from a stricken tugboat that crashed against the same Alaskan reef that damaged the Exxon Valdez 20 years ago. Efforts to remove the 33,500 gallons (125,000 litres) of fuel were slowed Friday when a mile (1.5-kilometer) -long diesel sheen spread across Prince William Sound.
Overflights found that the fuel had escaped a containment boom and was not the result of a new leak in the fuel tanks, so transfer work resumed later Friday, according to Jim Butler, a spokesman for the boat's owner, Crowley Maritime Services. The work was expected to be completed Saturday. Once the fuel from the Pathfinder is transferred to another vessel, the salvage team will have a good idea of how much diesel fuel spilled into the sound.