NAIROBI (Reuters) – Some corals have lived on the fringes of Mauritius for centuries. Now for days smothered in heavy fuel oil spilled from a wrecked Japanese tanker nearby, parts of those reefs could be in trouble.
The full impact of the toxic spill is still lacking, scientists say. While the inhabitants of the island of the Indian Ocean crawl to mop up the oil tanks and clogs, they see dead eels and fish floating in the water, like smooth seabirds with fuel lime on the shore.
Satellite imagery also shows the 1,000 tons of spilled oil spreading north along the coastline from the spill site into the turquoise waters of Blue Bay Marine Park.
The damage, scientists say, could affect Mauritius and its tourism-dependent economy for decades.
“This oil radiation occurred in one of, if not the most sensitive areas in Mauritius,” oceanographer and environmental engineer Vassen Kauppaymuthoo told Reuters by phone, where he was investigating the disaster. “We’ve been talking for decades about repairing this damage, and some of it may never recover.”
Dangerous wildlife includes the lakes that deepen the sand in shallow waters, clownfish that roam coral reefs, mangrove trees that correlate the coastline with their elongated root systems, and the critically endangered Pink Pigeon, endemic to the island. .
Giant turtles run slowly through a natural area on the nearby island, Ile-aux-Aigrettes, which also houses a scientific research station. In total, the Blue Bay Marine park has 38 species of coral and 78 species of fish.
The game brings “a massive toxic shock to the system,” said Adam Moolna, an environmental scientist from Mauritius who teaches at Keele University in Britain. “This oil will have cascading effects on the webs of life.”
STIL UNCONTAINED
The game came from Japanese-owned MV Wakashio, which crashed into a reef in the Marine Park on July 25. It is not yet clear why the ship sailed so close to shore. About a week later, oil began to leak from the cracked ship.
However, the flow was stopped, authorities say, after pumping the ship’s remaining oil.
On Thursday, the owner of the ship Nagashiki Shipping said it would look into its liability and assess compensation for the disaster.
Already, about 15 km of coastline have been affected by the spill, said President Jacqueline Sauzier of Mauritius Marine Conservation Society Society.
“We do not have the equipment or the expertise to remove the oil, and time is of the essence to limit the damage,” she told Reuters.
Local residents wade unprotected in the toxic waters while using human skin, such as sticks from sugar factories to wake up as much of the flush as quickly as possible.
For both humans and wildlife, the spill will have a ‘resonant and resounding impact for the next 10 to 20 years,’ said environmental toxicologist Craig Downs, who observes oil storms but has not studied the shortage in Mauritius.
SPIRAL FACTS
Coral reefs and fish are likely to suffer first. That is especially rough for Mauritius, where tourism and fisheries are the basis of the economy.
Surviving corals could have weakened resistance to marine heat waves that hit the area due to climate change and have already caused some coral bleaching, experts say.
“As things go on, they’re the future prospect for coral reefs, they look indie, very pale indie,” said Alex Rogers, a visiting professor at Oxford University and science director at REV Ocean, a non-profit company.
Preservers are also worried about washing oil in mangrove forests, where roots serve as baby shelters for fish.
Oil could also settle in sediments around mangroves, where it could contaminate molluscs, crabs and fish larvae, said Callum Roberts, a professor of marine protection at the University of Exeter in Britain.
“It’s very difficult to remove once it has sunk into the sediment,” Roberts said. “Trees can get sick and die.”
Birds that nest in the mangroves, or migrate through nearby mud flats, are also vulnerable. Purchasing oil can make it difficult for birds to fight disease or even fly, said environmental toxicologist Christopher Goodchild at Oklahoma State University.
Research has shown that “just a small amount of oil that is transferred to a bird’s egg – as small as a drop of blood – can actually cause a change in the physiology of the bird’s embryo,” he said.
Beds of sailors, which like mangroves store large amounts of carbon dioxide, play a vital role in protecting shores from waves.
On land, some scientists warn that discharges from oil deposits could harden and lead to lasting change.
“In the long run, we could see an asphalt-like coast as the oil disappears and degrades, like the oil pools,” said Ralph Portier, an environmental scientist at Louisiana State University who traced the aftermath of the game of Deepwater Horizon in 2010 studied in the Gulf of Mexico.
“It’s a real tragedy,” Portier said.
Report by Matthew Green of London; Additional Report by Katharine Houreld in Nairobi; Edited by Katy Daigle and Jonathan Oatis
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