The Pacific Responder is a support vessel designed to respond to disastrous leaks of oil, at sea.[1] Her construction was triggered by perceived inadequacies in the responses to the wreck of Exxon Valdez in Valdez, Alaska, in 1989, and the burning of the Mega Borg, off Galveston, in 1990. She was completed in 1993.
The Pacific Responder cost $12 million.[1] She was the first vessel of a projected class of 16 oil recovery vessels.
Her initial tests took place off the coast of New Jersey, in 1993, although her homeport was San Francisco, California.[1]
2010's Deepwater Horizon oil spill was so serious that the Pacific Responder and her sister ship, the California Responder traveled from California to the Gulf of Mexico, to help contain that spill.