Cordova - David Rovics

I am a fisherman, so were my parents

Here in Cordova on Prince William Sound

I’m not a treehugger but I love the mountains

And hauling in the gill net with the ocean all around

Life was good here, you could raise a family

With a hundred thousand tons of Herring sent out every year

1989, the tanker grounded

Nothing has ever been the same around here

Senator Stephens said not one drop

Of oil would spill on Alaska’s shores

And if it happened it would be cleand up

But our beaches wer still covered, as was the ocean floor

Four years passed, each run collapsed

It was then we knew for sure the Herring weren’t coming back

Exxon’s promises of compensation

Were about as empty as a used up paper sack

It was August 20th, 1993

When we fishermen decided something must be done

We packed some groceries, we made some banners

We headed out to Valdez Narrows beneath the midnight sun

One hundred vessels took to the water

Pushed through a storm and to the Valdez sea

We lined up our boats, formed a blockade

And waited for whatever might be

A tanker was approaching

It was a sight to see there in the twilight of the day

We saw it turning and we all cheered and cried

As tanker after tanker after tanker turned away

A Coast Guard gunship from Seattle

Would take three days to get up to the sound

We held the line til then, then we went back

Home to Cordova, to this hallowed, oiled ground

I am a fisherman, so were my parents

Here in Cordova on Prince William Sound