Anxious residents of the Indian Ocean nation Mauritius have stuffed dustbins with sugar leaves to create easy oil spill barriers, as tons of fuel leaking from a ground ship ship puts endangered wildlife at further risk.
The government declared on Saturday an environmental need because satellite images showed a dark slick scattered in the turquoise waters near wetlands that the government called “very sensitive”.
Wildlife officials and volunteers transported dozens of baby turtles and rare plants from an island near the game, Ile aux Aigrettes, to the mainland as fears grew that less weather on Sunday could tear Japanese property along its cracked hull.
Residents and residents wondered why authorities did not act faster after the ship, the MV Wakashio, struck the reef off the southeast coast of the island of the Indian Ocean on July 25.
Mauritius says the ship carried nearly 4,000 tons of fuel.
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“That’s the big question,” Jean Hugues Gardenne of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation told The Associated Press. “Why did that ship sit on that coral reef for so long and do nothing.”
This is the country’s first oil spill, he said, adding that perhaps no one expected the ship to break apart. For days, residents moored to the secure tilt ship when a salvage team arrived and began work, but ocean waves remained the carrier.
“She just hit and hit and hit,” Gardenne said.
Cracks in the hull were discovered a few days ago and the salvage team was quickly evacuated. Some 400 sea trees were deployed to contain the game, but they were not enough.
Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth says the game “represents a danger” to the country of 1.3 million people heavily dependent on tourism and hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our country does not have the skills and expertise to charge stranded ships,” he said on Friday. “I’m worried about what might happen on Sunday when the weather gets worse.”
France to send help
French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Saturday that his country had sent aid from neighboring Reunion, a French overseas territory.
A Reunion military plane with pollution control equipment would make two flights over the playground, while a naval vessel would also carry bombs and absorbents, authorities in Reunion said.
“If biodiversity is at risk, there is an urgent need to act,” Macron said. “You can count on our support.”
Greenpeace said the fuel and oil leaks in nearby lagoons threatened the survival of thousands of species that were “at risk of drowning in a sea of pollution”.
The spill at Pointe d’Esny was probably “one of the most horrific ecological crises ever seen on the small island,” the environmental group said in a statement.
“Thousands of species around the pristine lagoons of Blue Bay, Pointe d’Esny and Mahebourg risk drowning in a sea of pollution, with dire consequences for Mauritius’ economy, food security and health,” said Greenpeace’s climate and energy manager Happy Khambule.
The country has also called on the United Nations for urgent assistance, including experts in containment of oil storms and environmental protection.
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