{"id":43903,"date":"2020-08-10T18:18:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T15:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/mauritius-races-to-contain-oil-spill-protect-coastline-2\/"},"modified":"2020-08-10T18:18:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T15:18:00","slug":"mauritius-races-to-contain-oil-spill-protect-coastline-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/mauritius-races-to-contain-oil-spill-protect-coastline-2\/","title":{"rendered":"#Mauritius races to contain oil spill, protect coastline"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Mauritius races to contain oil spill, protect coastline<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n JOHANNESBURG \u2014 Thousands of students, environmental activists and residents of Mauritius were working around the clock Sunday, trying to reduce the damage to the Indian Ocean island from an oil spill after a ship ran aground on a coral reef.<\/p>\n

An estimated 1 ton of oil from the Japanese ship\u2019s cargo of 4 tons has already escaped into the sea, officials said. Workers were seeking to stop more oil from leaking, but with high winds and rough seas on Sunday there were reports of new cracks to the ship\u2019s hull.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth has declared a state of emergency and app<\/a>ealed for international help. He said the spill \u201crepresents a danger\u201d for the country of 1.3 million people that relies heavily on tourism and has been hurt by travel<\/a> restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

Satellite images show a dark slick spreading in the turquoise waters near wetlands that the government called \u201cvery sensitive.\u201d Wildlife workers and volunteers, meanwhile, ferried dozens of baby tortoises and rare plants from an island near the spill, Ile aux Aigrettes, to the mainland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is no longer a threat to our environment, it is a full-blown ecological disaster that has affected one of the most environmentally important parts of Mauritius, the Mahebourg Lagoon,\u201d said Sunil Dowarkasing, an environmental consultant and former member of parliament.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/img>
This photo taken and provided by Sunil Dowarkasing, shows oil polluting the foreshore on the eastern side of Mauritius.<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe people of Mauritius, thousands and thousands, have come out to try to prevent as much damage as possible,\u201d said Dowarkasing, who spoke from the relief efforts at Bois des Amourettes by the lagoon.<\/p>\n

He said people have created long floating oil booms to try to slow the spread into the lagoon and onto the coast. The hastily made fabric booms are stuffed with sugar cane leaves and straw and kept afloat with plastic bottles, he said. People are also using empty oil drums to scoop up as much oil as possible from shallower waters.<\/p>\n

University students and members of the local Lions and Rotary clubs are among the volunteers, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working flat out. It\u2019s a major challenge because the oil is not only floating in the lagoon, it\u2019s already washing up on the shore,\u201d said Dowarkasing. \u201cThe booms are really working in many spots.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the steady winds and waves have spread the fuel across the eastern side of the island.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/img>
This photo taken and provided by Eric Villars shows oil leaking from the MV Wakashio.<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never seen anything like this in Mauritius,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The lagoon is a protected area, created several years ago to preserve an area in Mauritius as it was 200 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coral reefs had begun to regenerate and the lagoon was getting back its coral gardens,\u201d said Dowarkasing. \u201cNow this might all be killed again by the oil spill.\u201d<\/p>\n

A French military transport aircraft was carrying pollution control equipment to Mauritius and a navy vessel with additional material planned to sail from the nearby French island of Reunion.<\/p>\n

Residents and environmentalists alike asked why authorities didn\u2019t act more quickly after the ship, the MV Wakashio, ran aground on a coral reef on July 25.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/img>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the big question,\u201d Jean Hugues Gardenne with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation told The Associated Press. \u201cWhy that ship has been sitting for long on that coral reef and nothing being done.\u201d<\/p>\n

For days, residents peered out at the precariously tilted ship as a salvage team arrived and began to work, but ocean waves kept battering the ship. Cracks in the hull were detected a few days ago and the salvage team was quickly evacuated. Some 400 sea booms were deployed to contain the spill, but they were not enough, he said.<\/p>\n

In Japan, officials of the company that owns the ship, Nagashiki Shipping and the ship\u2019s operator, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, apologized Sunday for the oil leak.<\/p>\n

At their first news<\/a> conference since the ship ran aground two weeks ago, the officials said they have sent experts to Mauritius to join in the cleanup effort. They are trying to do so in an environmentally safe way, without using emulsifiers and other environmentally harmful chemicals, said Kiyoaki Nagashiki, president of the shipowner Nagashiki Shipping.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, we are doing the utmost to prevent further oil spill and to remove it from the sea,\u201d said Akihiko Ono, vice president of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines. \u201cWe are aware of a potential major impact on the tourism in the area and we take it very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

The officials said the Wakashio left China on July 14 and was on its way to Brazil. The ship was about 1 mile off the southeast coast of Mauritius when it went aground, even though it was supposed to be 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 kilometers) away from the island, Mitsui executive Masanori Kato said. Mitsui is investigating why the ship went off course.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/img>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The officials said the companies were continuing to remove fuel from the ship using a vessel small enough to safely operate in the shallow waters. They said the operation is time-consuming because of rough waves. The shipowner and operator are working with a salvage ship to lift the tanker while trying to prevent any further oil leaks.<\/p>\n

The ship\u2019s engine room and ballast tank were damaged and had water seeping inside, but its 20 crew members have been safely evacuated, officials said.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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“#Mauritius races to contain oil spill, protect coastline” JOHANNESBURG \u2014 Thousands of students, environmental activists and residents of Mauritius were working around the clock Sunday, trying to reduce the damage to the Indian Ocean island from an oil spill after a ship ran aground on a coral reef. An estimated 1 ton of oil from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[51013,51014],"class_list":["post-43903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-mauritius-races-to-contain-oil-spill","tag-protect-coastline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}