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.
From Monday next week, the ban on fishing in areas impacted by the oil spill will be lifted. It’s a literal lifesaver for hundreds of fishers from those areas. We’ve covered the sheer distress caused to those fishers, their families, and the local economy/community which relies on their income source, in previous newsletters and articles. Now, at long last, the fishers are allowed to earn a living again.
But I know what you’re thinking: is the fish from those areas safe for consumption?
In this issue
Île aux Aigrettes 😍
The rare bird that could become the next conservation success story
The Mauritian government has for months been very vocal about how clean and safe the sea is. But it has not made public any of the chemical analyses it claims to have done in the affected areas. As we’ve established in previous newsletters, it would be foolish to assume the government is telling us the truth. That is not to say that it is not telling us the truth and that the sea is not clean and safe, but it’s best to assume it isn’t and work from there.
So, let’s do that. Let’s try to figure out why the government would lift the ban on fishing, anyway. Three possible reasons:
so fishers who are jobless and in poverty can feed their families again;
return to some form of normalcy placates the electorate and boosts spirit;
because it has nothing to lose as scientific analyses have deemed fish and seafood from those areas safe for consumption.
We can discard reason number one because it’s been quite clear over the past four months that the Mauritian government has little to no interest in the wellbeing of people who live in areas impacted by the oil spill, including fishers.
Reason number two would be an incentive for government to lift the fishing ban. But perhaps a rather small one. There is no electorate to placate, really. There have been no public demonstrations in months – due to the police refusing to allow public assemblies and public apathy. But also, and perhaps more importantly, lifting the ban while the water is still unsafe and therefore risking an outbreak of food poisoning (or worse) is too great a price to pay – even for this government.
This then leaves us with reason number three: the government has nothing to lose from lifting the ban. And the only way it can have nothing to lose is if it is quite certain that fish and seafood from those areas pose negligible to no risk to public health. That certainty can only come on the back on results from scientific analyses.
Based on this, I personally do think the government is confident that fish and seafood from those areas are safe for consumption.
The latest
⚫ Good news about Île aux Aigrettes nature reserve
Four months since the ecocide, and the coral islet is in good shape and open to the public, once again.
Île aux Aigrettes became a sanctuary for indigenous species of birds, small reptiles and plants following years of intensive conservation work. It was a genuine worry that all would be lost when the ecocide happened. The islet was surrounded by oil within hours of the stuff gushing out of the grounded Wakashio vessel. But thanks to the heroic work of conservationists who evacuated some of the birds and plants most at risk, things are looking more positive now.
There is even a “Special Wakashio Tour” that takes visitors through the conservationists’ heroic work during the oil spill and which shows the impact the oil has had on parts of the islet.
More: If you’re not in Mauritius and can’t get the tour, I wrote about how conservationists launched a rescue mission in the aftermath of the ecocide for Scientific American earlier this year.
⚫ Good news about the endangered Mauritius fody
Most Mauritians have never seen a Mauritius fody. And if they have, they may have mistaken it for the more ubiquitous Madagascar fody (cardinal in Creole). They are similar looking though the Mauritius fody is glad in less red. But the major difference is in their numbers. There are dozens of Madagascar fodies in every backyard in Mauritius, there are 700 Mauritius fodies in the world.
Here’s the good news: that number has doubled over the past two decades. From 2003 to 2006, conservationists looked after 45 chicks and introduced them on Île aux Aigrettes. Today, there are 350 of them on the islet. And that number has not gone down because of the oil spill.
More: The Mauritius fody isn’t going the way of the dodo (in French).
And finally … this isn’t related to the oil spill per se, but it is about the ocean. (Full disclosure: I work at The Conversation.)
Thank you for allowing us into your inbox. Consider clicking on the heart icon so the algorithm suggests this newsletter to more people. Thanks again. – Khalil.