August 14, 2020, 11:07 AM
A Japanese-owned bulk carrier, MV (Merchant Vessel) Wakashio, ran aground on a coral reef in southern Mauritius on July 25, and has since been leaking heavy fuel oil into the Indian Ocean.
The ship was en route to Brazil from China, after a refuel in Singapore.
The island of Mauritius declared a 'state of environment emergency' and sought international help as the oil spill is polluting nearby coral reefs, beaches and lagoons, reported BBC.
About 1,000 tonnes of oil has leaked out of the vessel
According to BBC, the ship was carrying about 4,000 tonnes of oil, and has since leaked about 1,000 tonnes into the pristine marine environments of Pointe d'Esny, which has been known to be a sanctuary for rare wildlife.
Photos via Greenpeace Africa/Facebook
A document by the National Parks and Conservation Services of Mauritius stated that the Pointe d’Esny wetland, which spans over 21.5 hectares, is "one of the rare and largest remaining wetlands of Mauritius" and was designated as the Third Ramsar Site of International Importance in 2011.
The site supports rich mangroves forests and critically endangered plants, fishes, crustaceans and shore birds.
The mangrove ecosystem also provides flood protection for the local community.
In photos uploaded to social media by Greenpeace Africa, oil slicks are seen on large stretches of the coastal environment.
The area around where the ship has grounded also contains important wetlands and a protected marine park, called Blue Bay Marine Park.
Another video by Twitter user Hugo Clément mentions that the oil is spreading to Pointe du Diable, which is around 10 kilometres away from the grounded ship at Pointe d'Esny.
People are seen scooping up oil from the coastal environment in the video by Clément:
Selon Greg Rouxel, la marée noire remonte vers pointe au diable (est de l’île). pic.twitter.com/4vtWXX09yb
— Hugo Clément (@hugoclement) August 11, 2020
Other videos by Clément also show how thick and dense the oil is, and how it has covered a mangrove environment completely.
— Hugo Clément (@hugoclement) August 11, 2020
Volunteers scramble to make barriers using straws and even human hair
Satellite images (such as the one below from the European Space Agency) show the extent of the oil spill, as oil is even seen several kilometres away from the original site when the ship is grounded:
Satellite images help to monitor the ongoing spill. The oil slick can be seen as a thin, black line surrounded by the bright turquoise colours of the Indian Ocean. Photo by ESA/Copernicus Sentinel-2, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
As the ship continues to leak oil and spreads across the surrounding wetland areas, thousands of volunteers have come together to clean up the oil spill.
The government of Mauritius said that nearly 400 sea booms have been deployed and investigations into the cause of the spill are ongoing.
Locals were reportedly unhappy about the delay in actions by the government which was why many continued with their clean up efforts even though they were asked to stop by the officials.
#Wakashio has been wrecked near the #Mauritian lagoon of Pointe d'Esny for the past 12 days. No visibly concrete actions to stop this.
— The Logical Mauritian (@mauritianlogic) August 6, 2020
It is now spilling oil and on the way to become a marine disaster.
HELP!@climate@NatGeo @MarineLife_Aus @oceana @EU_Commission @Anon_Support pic.twitter.com/Px6OdqQ3we
Locals stuff straw into fabric to create these straw barriers to limit oil spill, as seen in this photo posted by Greenpeace Africa:
Some Mauritians even cut and donated their own hair to stuff barriers to help extract the oil from the spill, according to BBC.
In a study published in 2015, human hair was found to adsorb three to nine times its weights in various oil types.
Non-profit groups also rallied people to create "artisanal booms" using dried sugarcane leaves and plastic bottles.
via Ecomode Society/Facebook.
Worst case scenario avoided but impact from oil spill will last for years
The Mauritius government said that they will be seeking compensation from the owner of the ship, Nagashiki Shipping.
Nagashiki Shipping has pledged to assist to mitigate any damage.
Previously, concerns over further oil leakage from the carrier arose as Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth told his people to prepare for the worst on Aug. 11 as the ship could break apart.
Fortunately, Nagashiki Shipping updated that almost all of the remaining oil in the ship has been pumped out on Aug. 12.
However, marine biologists said that the 1,000 tonnes of oil spill is sufficient to cause a long term consequence on marine wildlife as well as the people's livelihoods, BBC reported.
One marine biologist who is also an international oil spill adviser, Richard Steiner, said that the Mauritius government should do an environmental impact assessment as soon as possible.
Steiner also told BBC that the impacts from this oil spill will last for years.
Vikash Tatayah, the conservation director at the non-governmental Mauritius Wildlife Foundation, said that this was a setback for the restoration efforts on the natural habitats in the past 20 years since the government banned sand harvesting in 2000.
Besides ecological impacts, the locals whose livelihoods depend on the pristine marine environment are affected by the massive oil spill too.
The white-sand beaches used to be a huge draw for tourists in the past.
Top photo via Greenpeace Africa/Facebook
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