On March 24, 1989, in what is regarded as one of the worst oil spills in American history, a tanker owned by Exxon, the "Exxon Valdez", crashed into Bligh Reef, spilling its cargo of over ten million gallons of crude oil into the Prince William Sound in Alaska and causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of seabirds and sea mammals. The ship was piloted by a captain with a history of drunk driving convictions, and Exxon was ordered by a jury to pay punitive damages in the amount of $5 billion. This judgment was eventually reduced, after multiple appeals, to just $500 million by 2008.