Sea Otter Resuce - Roland Smith

This is one of the non-fiction Battle of the Books titles for this year, and it was a quick read and super interesting. It's about the Exxon Valdez oil spill that happened up in Alaska in 1989. I spent some time up in Alaska (even Valdez) this summer, so I was really interested in this story. Roland Smith used to be a veterinarian, so when the oil spill happened he was asked to go up and help. His first hand knowledge of the animals and of the rescue effort made this a really great piece. Plus there are awesome photos of the rescue efforts. Those little sea otters are sooooo cute. But only when they're not covered with oil.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill was one of the worst ever and caused the deaths of thousands and thousands of animals, including the sea otters, birds, seals, some whales, and many other animals. It was a devestating event that no one was properly prepared for. Luckily, as a result of the spill, people learned a lot about how to do a better job of containment and clean-up in the event of a spill, and new rules were created which will require all oil tankers in the future to have basically two hulls to help prevent spills in the case of an accident.

I'd definitely recommend this book for lovers of animals and the envirnonment.