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Environmentalists have demanded an investigation into whether the dolphins were killed as a result of a spill from a Japanese ship, which sank on Monday after running aground in July and spilling oil.
Men recover the carcass of a melon-headed whale on the beach of Grand Sable, Mauritius, on August 26, 2020. Image: AFP
ADDIS ABABA – At least 40 dolphins have mysteriously died in an area of Mauritius affected by an oil spill from a Japanese ship, officials and witnesses said on Friday, as witnesses described the death of a mother dolphin and her baby.
Environmentalists have demanded an investigation into whether the dolphins were killed as a result of a spill from a Japanese ship, which sank on Monday after running aground in July and spilling oil.
The death toll may rise: Fisherman Yasfeen Heenaye said he saw between 25 and 30 apparently dead dolphins floating in the lagoon on Friday morning, among dozens of animals the fishermen were trying to keep away from the contamination.
“There was a mother and her baby,” he said. “He was very tired, he wasn’t swimming well. But the mother stayed by her side, did not let her baby go with the group. All the way she stayed with him. She was trying to protect him. “
He filmed as the calf rolled on its side and died in front of them, floating on the waves.
Heenaye, with the ship out of fuel, signaled to Reuben Pillay, who tracked down the mother dolphin. Initially it seemed normal, she said.
“But in a few minutes he was on his side, one fin in the water and the other out of the water, and then he started wagging his tail very, very fast,” said Pillay, a professional drone operator and environmentalist who is providing video to Reuters.
“It swam in circles in front of the boat, it wagged its tail very violently and after about five minutes it just stopped moving and sank … We heard screaming, I thought it was a woman in the boat, but they told me, no, it was the Dolphin “.
The mother dolphin stopped moving and finally sank slowly, tail first, under the waves. The dead baby floated on the surface.
“We did not know what to do. It was heartbreaking, ”Pillay said.
Hours earlier, Jasvin Sok Appadu from the Mauritius Fisheries Ministry told Reuters that 38 bodies had so far washed up on the beaches.
The results of the autopsy of 25 dolphins that reached the coast on Wednesday and Thursday are expected in the next few days, he said.
So far, veterinarians have examined only two of the dolphins, which showed signs of injury but no trace of oil on their bodies, according to preliminary autopsy results. The autopsy of the first two was performed by the government-run Albion Fisheries Research Center.
Dolphins have been dying in an area affected by an oil spill caused when the Japanese ship, the MV Wakashio, struck a coral reef last month.
On Thursday, Greenpeace called on the Mauritian government to launch an “urgent investigation to determine the cause of the deaths and any link to the Wakashio oil spill.”
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