Photo Gallery: Exxon Valdez revisited

Dan Simon | BIO
CNN Correspondent

With the oil leak in the Gulf, we wanted to see what things are like two decades after the worst spill in U.S. history. So we headed north to Cordova, Alaska, a small fishing community most affected by the the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. It’s clear the community is still living with the aftermath.

Cordova, Alaska fisherman John Platt still struggles daily with the effects, both financial and psychological, of the Exxon Valdez oil spill some 21 years later.

Fishermen here rely on the area’s booming herring fisheries.

A few years after the spill, the herring disappeared and haven’t returned since.

Cordova has a science center basically dedicated to the spill.

When you walk in to the science center, visitors are greeted by several jars of oil.

Fisherman John Plott told me, “I think the general perception is that we were compensated a long time ago– that everything is rosy… that's not the case.”

We got the sense that residents were grateful for the new round of publicity.

I was surprised to learn oil residue can still be easily found.