Hello and welcome to this issue of our newsletter. Every week, Ariel and Khalil, writers based in Mauritius, investigate the impact the oil spill is having on the country and its people, politics and nature.
One oil spill wasn’t enough for Mauritius in 2020, it seems.
Local news outlets are reporting that a great quantity of crude oil was found in a marsh in Les Salines, Port Louis. The marsh lies close to the sea. Reports suggest that the oil gushed from a leak in a pipe, and the leak could have sprung a whole week ago without the authorities being aware of the problem.
A fisherman told Radio 1 that he couldn’t fish yesterday because of the smell. “I couldn’t even see the fish,” he said.
Photo from Aret Kokin Nu Laplaz
In this issue
The oil spill has probably affected coral spawning
The Wakashio’s insurer is in Mauritius, analysing complaints
South-eastern beaches are now open to the public
The latest
⚫ This year’s coral spawning is a little freakish
It’s usually a beautiful sight: every year, around this time, the waves around Blue Bay and Pointe d’Esny grow pink. The colour’s a great sign: it means our corals are healthy enough to reproduce.
Except that this year, the waves are viscous pink - thick, alien-looking. Locals have never seen a coral spawn like this before, and believe the oil spill is behind the change.
More: Nishan Degnarain (you know it!) has written about the alien spawn here.
⚫ Japan P&I Club has an office in Mauritius
Japan P&I Club are the MV Wakashio’s insurer. They’re going through the complaints made after the spill, a process that’ll apparently take several years. “Yeah…so?” you’re probably asking.
So: Forbes says Japan P&I Club are the most secretive group on the ground here. “Even though the Wakashio was registered as a total constructive loss on July 25, the day it grounded on the reefs of Mauritius,” writes Degnarain, “the details of the insurance were updated on 7 August 2020. This was the day after oil started leaking from the Wakashio […] This raises questions about who had been insuring the vessel at the moment the vessel hit the reef in Mauritius […] note that insurance details for the Wakashio have now been removed from several maritime databases.”
More: Read the Forbes piece here.
⚫ You can bathe in the south-east again
Blue Bay & co are now officially open to the public again, but you won’t find any toxicity reports for each lagoon to assess just how safe they really are.
I wrote the following two weeks ago, and it’s worth restating for the record:
Just because there’s no visible oil on the surface of the sea doesn’t mean that oil and other toxins aren’t present.
We still don’t know exactly how much oil leaked from the ship, or the kind of fuel used. The most recent toxicity test listed on the government website was conducted on the 14th-15th of August, and published on the 8th of September. It states that fish from Blue Bay to Palmar were unfit for human consumption.
These results were published late, the number of fish analysed was small, and there’s no indication that there have been follow-up tests across the coast.
More: Time will tell whether these photos are full of innuendo (hopefully not)
That’s all from me! Hope you’re all well and safe – Ariel
Maybe the corals are spawning, but combined with remnant oils the colour has changed to dirty pink. I hope spawning is not too badly affected.