The Valdez Blockade was a 1993 protest by Cordova fishermen who blockaded the Valdez Narrows in an attempt to obtain funding for research and restoration efforts relating to decreasing yields of pink salmon and herring in Prince William Sound following the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. The fishermen were dissatisfied with the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee’s Council’s refusal to fund research efforts into the spill's effects on the fish. The blockade lasted three days, from August 20 to August 22. The blockade ended when Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt, promised funding for salmon and herring research. Findings from these studies resulted in additional compensation from Exxon. Background The initial 1991 settlement would require Exxon to pay $1 billion in damages. $900 million was allocated to a trust fund concerning special environmental restoration and the other $100 million went directly to the state and federal governments. By 1993, the United States General Accounting Office released a report stating that of the $200 million spent at that point in time, most had gone to federal and state programs and little had been awarded through competitive bids. The majority of the settlement that had been paid by Exxon had been allocated towards recovering legal fees, administrative costs, and reimbursements to the state and Federal governments as well as cleanup companies in order to cover the costs of cleanup work. Following the events of the Exxon oil spill, in 1991 a council dedicated to environmental restoration procession was established to guide future environmental disaster. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee's Council have a mission statement that explicates their goal to maintain and improve the fish, game, and aquatic plant resources in the state of Alaska. Reasoning for the Blockade Four years after the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Alaska fishermen had been experiencing a significant decrease in the amount of fish they had been bringing in. Fishermen cited the 11 million gallons of crude oil in the Prince William Sound’s waters as a result of the spill as the reason for the declining level of pink salmon cultivation. The affected reef was the Bligh Reef, located in the Prince William Sound. The high population density places the adult herring in a situation where even a small oil spill could affect most of the spawning stock. There had been damage to Bligh Reef in the past through the Alaska Steamship Company’s Olympia that collided with