After the oil spillage left Mauritius in an ‘environmental crisis’, the island authorities have arrests the Indian captain of MV Wakashio, the ship responsible for the contamination of the blue waters with tonnes of oil, on August 18th.
The Japanese-origin ship had run aground after its encounter with a coal reef, which allowed the oil filled in the vessel to flow steadily in the Indian Ocean after a week of the accident. This resulted in over 1,000 tonnes of oil flowing in the ocean instantly contaminating it and serving as a threat for the flora and fauna.
The officials of Mauritius haven’t disclosed the reason for the ship to run exceedingly close to the island that is a popular spot for couples and general tourists as it was originally travelling from Singapore to Brazil.
Speaking about the detained captain and his counterpart, Inspector Shiva Cohen, a spokesperson, said, “We arrested the captain and his second-in-command today. They were taken to court on a provisionary charge. The investigation continues from tomorrow with the interrogation of other crew members.”
The arrested captain is an Indian citizen while his deputy belongs to Sri Lanka. The duo was booked under the piracy and maritime violence and will be brought in court on August 25th again for hearing.
Saving the island from diving into a much greater environmental disaster, the rescue forces pumped out close to 3,000 tonnes of oil from the vessel on August 16th as it would break into two pieces very soon.
The crew started to drag the bigger portion of the split bulk carrier for pulling it into the open ocean and sinking it there. The piece attached to the engine room is still intact on the coral reef where the incident took place.
Highlighting the sensitive nature of the task at hand, maritime operations director Alain Donat said, “We are engaged in a delicate operation. We want to take advantage of high tide to pull it little by little. This part of the boat is 225 metres long and 50 metres wide.”
The maritime director added that the ship will be towed and taken to an area nearly 15 kilometres from the site of the disaster to sink it into the ocean waters.
With the suggestions from the French experts who were sent to aid the island authorities in solving the crisis, Mauritius took the decision to sink the vessel in the ocean on August 17th.
An official belonging to the Japan International Cooperation Agency said, “Since oil has been largely removed and the amount of the remaining oil is small, the impact of the operation on the environment is expected to be limited.” The company has also joined hands with Mauritius to help it come out of the catastrophe.
The ship’s origin country, Japan, had stated on August 17th about sending another group of seven professional experts to pump out the oil from the ocean. It had earlier sent a team of six experts to help the island in cleaning the spillage.
A Tokyo-based company has come forward to donate special oil-absorbent materials which can assist at large in removing the oil, This will be brought to Mauritius with the team of experts who will be starting from Japan on August 19th.
“We want to help local people who are struggling to remove oil,” said Yuki Takenoshita of the Japanese company which produced the product with polypropylene that holds the capability to absorb 1,200 litres of oil. This can help the island in its battle to clean the spill faster before any further damage takes place.
