Broken tanker threatens unique Indian Ocean ecosystem
(ORDO NEWS) — A Japanese tanker, which ran aground off the coast of Mauritius, split in two due to strong waves. This is reported by the Russian diaspora of the island state. Earlier, more than a thousand tons of oil products had already flowed out of the vessel. Experts say the fuel could destroy the unique ecosystem of the Indian Ocean.
The representative of the Russian diaspora, surfer Dmitri Evseev, together with his friends, are loading wetsuits. They are needed by the rescuers of Mauritius – their own too often fail. Now the guys have no nationalities, they are Mauritians who help each other. While locals are erecting booms, volunteers remove fuel oil from the banks using a specially designed system: unlike professional equipment, it allows better separation of oil from water. The ideological inspirer is the Pole Kuba Gasiewski. After successful tests, he received an order from professionals to produce 50 such systems.
While the pros are working in the area of the sunken ship, the help of volunteers is not required. But at any time they, together with handicraft equipment, will be involved in cleaning up pollution from hard-to-reach areas. Skimmer boats are now operating in the emergency zone to help cleanse the ocean from solid and liquid pollution. Volunteers managed to collect all the waste that had accumulated near the coast. But on Saturday morning, the weather in the area of the Japanese emergency ship deteriorated: a wave came. For the ship, this was in every sense a turning point. For those accustomed to taming the waves, the problem was not difficult to foresee. Large waves can simply break the ship.
The authorities of Mauritius said that the rescuers managed to pump out 2.5 thousand tons of fuel oil that were on board. But the difficulty is that the tanker still carried hundreds of tons of diesel fuel and lubricating oil. And the rescuers simply could not get to the engine room to pump out oil products: there was a risk of suffocation. In Mauritius, they turned to Tokyo for help. And a week later we received a response from the operator.
“I apologize to the residents of Mauritius for the inconvenience and concern. We will do our best to minimize the damage. We are really ready to take all measures to deal with this situation,” said Mitsui OSK Lines spokesman Akikihino Ono.
There are still no Japanese specialists in Mauritius. The island’s authorities have already created a specialized commission that will assess the damage to the ecosystem and sue the perpetrators of the accident. In particular, the captain of the ship, who, as journalists found out, celebrated his birthday at that very fateful moment. The ship was brought too close to the shore to pick up an internet signal.
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