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PORT LOUIS: Thousands of protesters demonstrated in the Mauritian capital Port Louis on Saturday (August 29) to demand an investigation into an oil spill from a Japanese ship and the mysterious deaths of at least 40 dolphins that have been found near the spill site. .
Environmentalists have called for an investigation into whether the dolphins died as a result of the spill caused when the bulk carrier, the MV Wakashio, struck a coral reef last month.
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One protester held a banner with an oil-covered dolphin that read “our lives matter,” and another held one calling for the government to resign. Mauritian flags were flown in the crowded Plaza de la Catedral de San Luis.
“We do not trust the government and the diluted information they have been giving us on the management and responses to the oil spill,” Fabiola Monty, a 33-year-old environmental scientist from Mauritius, told Reuters from the square.
The government has said it will perform autopsies on all the dead dolphins and has set up a commission to investigate the oil spill. Two investigations are underway: one by the police on the responsibilities of the crew and the other by a senior official from the Ministry of Maritime Transport about what happened to the ship.
So far, veterinarians have examined just two of the mammal carcasses, which showed signs of injury but no traces 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.
READ: Mauritian boat operator on shore apologizes for oil leak
Autopsy results for 25 dolphins that reached shore Wednesday and Thursday are expected in the coming days, according to Jasvin Sok Appadu of the Fisheries Ministry.
Local environmental group Eco-Sud, which participated in Saturday’s protest, said in a statement Friday that civil society representatives must be present during the autopsies and asked for a second opinion from independent specialists.
