document: Exxon crews Tuesday finished pumping the remaining crude oil out of the tanker Exxon Valdez in preparation for refloating and removing the source of the nation 's worst-ever oil spill . The fugitive captain of the Exxon Valdez sent signals he was ready to surrender to face criminal charges of operating the vessel while drunk . Meanwhile , Exxon said placing an oil-catching boom around the ship immediately after the grounding could have touched off a giant explosion of gases from the oil , although that was not the reason it took 11 hours to set the first containment line . `` The worst thing we could have done early on was try to boom the vessel . We would have lost the vessel , '' said Exxon Shipping Co. . President Frank Iarossi . A boom was n't placed around the vessel for 11 hours because it was n't available in Valdez , Exxon officials have said . Iarossi also said Exxon has changed its policy because of the spill and now requires crews to be aboard ship , where drinking is prohibited , four hours before sailing . Authorities charged the captain had been drinking before the Valdez sailed . Thick oil has floated over more than 1,640 square miles and soiled 800 miles of beach . Thousands of animals are known dead , including 30 sea otters . Early Tuesday , Exxon said it had finished transferring about 42 million gallons of crude to three other ships . Another 42 million gallons of oily waste water remained aboard the Valdez , which spilled more than 10 million gallons of crude into Prince William Sound when it struck a reef March 24 . The company said crews would attempt to pump air into the hold and refloat the vessel off a reef at high tide Wednesday afternoon . If freed , the still-leaking ship , which has eight holes some 20 feet long in its hull , will be towed to a remote and already fouled cove for repairs . Exxon then planned to take the ship to a port in the Far East , or to a Portland , Ore. , dry dock . Port officials there said they were n't sure if they 'd allow that , even though the $ 12 million repair bill would provide about 200 jobs . `` We 're not willing to trade in the environment for jobs , '' Portland port spokesman Darrel Buttice said Monday . Oregon Gov. Neil Goldschmidt said Tuesday there are `` a lot of questions that need to be answered '' before the Valdez is allowed in . Canadian authorities also asked Exxon for assurances there will be no damage to the British Columbia coast if the tanker is towed to Oregon , and the mayor of Valdez said the ship was not welcome back in the port where it took on the load of crude . In Washington , Environmental Protection Administrator William Reilly said the spill could put the brakes on petroleum exploration there and in other areas . `` We will take apart the environmental planning for every aspect of oil development in Alaska and in other sensitive areas where the environment potentially could be threatened , '' he told a House appropriations subcommittee . The family of the fired Exxon Valdez captain , Joseph Hazelwood , said the skipper wants to surrender but is awaiting advice from his attorney , according to Lt. Thomas Fazio , commander of the New York State Police on Long Island . But after Long Island law enforcement authorities waited a second day for Hazelwood to turn himself in , the Suffolk County district attorney 's office announced there would be no surrender that day . Hazelwood , 42 , is accused operating the ship while under the influence of alcohol , reckless endangerment and negligent discharge of oil . Bail was previously set in Valdez at $ 50,000 . Of about three dozen oil-soaked otters rescued following the spill , about one-third have died , Alaska Department of Fish and Game spokesman Jon Lyman said . `` Dozens of otters are dying before rescuers can get to them , '' he said . Six otters were flown to Sea World in San Diego on Monday for rehabilitation . Fishermen counting on the sound 's $ 12 million annual herring industry were told Monday by the state that it will not allow a season this year . Sablefish and shrimp fisheries in Prince William waters also have been closed . An effort at Sawmill Bay , 11 miles west of Valdez , to keep oil away from a hatchery where 2 million salmon are waiting to be released to the sea appeared to be failing . Tendrils of oil had floated past a boom streched across the bay , said officials . The spill has shifted public opinion in Alaska about the energy industry , which has been lobbying for new exploration . U.S. Sen. Frank Murkowski , a champion of oil exploration in Alaska , asked that plans for drilling in Bristol Bay , the state 's richest fishing grounds , be set aside until the industry can demonstrate that it can respond effectively to spills . `` The Exxon Valdez accident has taught us that simply having a plan is not sufficient , '' the Alaska Republican said . At the first Valdez City Council meeting since the spill , two council members and Mayor John Devens expressed concern that anger and frustration over the spill was surfacing as harrassment of pipeline company workers and their children . Meanwhile , a multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit was filed Monday in federal court in California against Exxon Corp. , charging that the spill has led to gas prices of 10 to 15 cents more a gallon for California drivers .
extractive_keyphrases: exxon crews crude oil tanker exxon valdez joseph hazelwood annual herring industry criminal charges
abstractive_keyphrases: worst-ever oil spill oil-catching boom