• Environmental

  Cargo ship leaking tons of oil off the Mauritius coast has split in two

  Posted by Sarah on 17 August 2020 at 9:32 pm

  The MV Wakashio split on Saturday after weeks grounded in waters off Mauritius.

  A massive clean-up operation involving thousands of local volunteers had been underway but a crack in the vessels hull expanded earlier this week, according to the ship’s operator Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, a Japanese company.

  One of the ship’s three oil tanks had already leaked into the
  ocean and crews were attempting to remove the oil from the other tanks
  before the ship broke up.

  Earlier this week, the operator, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, said about
  1180 metric tonnes of oil had leaked from the vessel’s fuel tank — with
  about 460 tonnes manually recovered from the sea and coast.

  The ship was carrying about 3800 tonnes of Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil and 200 tonnes of diesel oil, according to the operator.

  Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth had declared a state of environmental emergency.

  “We are in a situation of environmental crisis,” Kavy Ramano, the country’s environment minister, had said.

  The spill is close to two environmentally protected marine ecosystems and the Blue Bay Marine Park reserve.

  Sarah replied 3 years, 9 months ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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