Just after midnight, a series of errors on board the Exxon Valdez oil tanker led the ship aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound. About 30 million litres of crude oil leaked from the tanker's breached hull, causing massive destruction along hundreds of kilometres of once-pristine coast.

Body of a dead humpback whale is seen in Omonville-la-Rogue, north-west France, a rare species to the Channel. A French fishermen brought the whale back in his nets, saying that it was already dead when it was caught in the nets. Entanglement in plastic bags and fishing gear have long been identified as a threat to sea birds, turtles and smaller cetaceans.