The cleanup of the oil spill in Mauritius is still underway amid unanswered questions, an ecological time bomb has now turned out worse than officials initially revealed, and the indifference of the same foreign organizations that had been sent to help.
It is also the site of a major crime: several domestic and foreign environmental laws have been violated.
The oil and sea industry seems hopeful that the world will pass and About Mauritius.
However, the stern (rear) of the Japanese Panamanian flag shipment still protrudes from Mauritius reefs to recall the series of mistakes that have killed some 50 whales and dolphins that have died off the coast of Mauritius in recent times. Weeks.
Last week, for the first time, the Mauritius government unveiled the effects of fish sample research (an action Forbes had highlighted since the start of the oil spill) Based on these effects, a mastery of the coral lagoon covering 125 square meters kilometres had been cordoned off, covering a 36-kilometre coastline. It is frustrating that these effects were announced weeks after the political resolution to close coral lagoons on August 28.
Seafood in this region has now been considered unworthy of human consumption after laboratory testing.
This occurs when Wakashio operator Mitsui OSK Lines has delivered a refrigerated container to Mauritius for the storage of seafood. An undeniable investigation by Mauritius would have revealed that the same fishermen this container was targeting were those who had been prevented from going to the lagoon to fish.
Rather than being a white elephant, those conveniences now provide Mauritian scientists with the right conveniences to purchase the large-scale biological sampling required for proper clinical testing of this island component, adding in the garage of the carcasses of 49 whales. and dead dolphins. until a full autopsy is performed.
The government press release shows that samples of fish from other species were taken, adding crustaceans, and tested at Quantilab’s personal laboratory in Mauritius, which is the lab guilty of testing racehorses, a pastime on the island. Fish tests included heavy metals, hydrocarbons in general (HCT) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
These are now beginning to look like more serious evidence for an oil spill, statements by the government and foreign organizations at the start of the oil spill, which concerned only the visual search for the presence of hydrocarbons in fish slices.
Biological samples were collected through the National Fisheries Research Centre in Mauritius, Albion. Samples were taken from a total of 22 sites, up to the press release of 8 September 2020.
The samples were taken on 14 August and announced on 8 September, the personal laboratory is in Mauritius and is easily accessible. These tests take no more than a few hours to complete, so why delay between taking samples and sharing the effects publicly?
At a press convention on 28 August, at the same time as the 49 dead whales and dolphins appeared off the coast of Mauritius, the Minister of Fisheries announced the extension of limited fishing areas.
The three-week delay between 14 August and 8 September is deeply worrying, as operational data wants to be transmitted in a time close to the real one to ensure that non-governmental actors and civil society can properly enroll in the post-oil spill. reaction efforts.
The inaccurate, limited and delayed data partly explains why so many other people in Mauritius have protested in recent weeks as confidence in the government has eroded. It also follows evidence of a primary cyber effort introduced against environmental and social protesters in the race. until the national marches on Saturday.
Many foreign observers are surprised at the unhappy subsampling that takes place in Mauritius. Even 21 samples are statistically significant for conducting any significant variance investigation. Any high school statistics student would know.
In addition, the samples appear to have been taken along the coast. Where are the samples from inside the lagoon from where the 49 dead whales and dolphins died and went to shore?
All of this is very unexpected when many countries with complex capabilities in marine sciences, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, have presented their clinical and analytical analysis to Mauritius, as well as to a giant civil society and diaspora community. all of which seems to have been set aside through a “government knows how to do better” approach.
Even the IMO representative’s assertions that “Maurice is overworked” were unexpected for many, such as the former president of Mauritius, a biodiversity scientist, who called him in an interview with the BBC on 17 September.
Describing the scenario in Mauritius, Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim said: “The scenario involving all stakeholders has not been unified. We know that the IMO is in the country. We know there are representatives of the Japanese government. We know that there are representatives of Panama, but we, as citizens, are kept in the dark and given information in pieces in the newspapers. We haven’t been told anything coherent. That’s just not right. “
It is also attractive to take a look at the dates of the other advertisements, the laboratory effects of which occurred in samples taken on August 14 and 15.
At the time, the government and UN agencies had stated that oil alone in very limited spaces and referred to UNOSAT’s UN satellite oil investigation basically around the port of Mahébourg.
However, the personal sector had developed much more complex device learning techniques for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that can simply improve the strength of satellites beyond spacecraft sensors. Using these satellites, Finnish startup Iceye and Ursa Space Systems research, articles in Forbes. at that time it showed that the spread of oil had spread much further north of Deer Island.
It now appears that these personal sector satellite photographs were validated through evidence that took a position four miles north of wakashio’s destination turn site at the time of SAR analysis. it is located four kilometres north along the coast, fish unworthy of human ingestion were discovered on 14 and 15 August, even when foreign ministers and “experts” had publicly declared that there was no oil there.
So why has this data just been published? How much fish did you feed on between August 14 and 28 when those spaces were still prohibited from fishing?
On September 11, Wakashio operator Mitsui OSK Lines presented a giant refrigerated container to affected fishermen in the southeast, according to the Mauritius government, this refrigerated container is valued at $125,000. heaps of millions of dollars, not to mention the loss of exclusive biodiversity.
Press releases from the company and the Mauritius government indicated that the container designed to help fishermen buy their fishery products.
However, fishermen have been prohibited from fishing in a 125-kilometer domain in the largest coral lagoon in Mauritius.
Perhaps if foreign organizations had started by asking others in the region what they want and want hether to offer what they think they want, the movements would be much more welcomed.
Perhaps this container can be used for a purpose.
From the early days of the oil spill it became clear that biological sampling (fish sampling to verify the chemical signatures of HAPs from oil spills) should be particularly increased.
This would be a wiser use than waiting for local fishermen to be no longer allowed to fish in the most dangerous and agitated waters of the Indian Ocean beyond the coral lagoon.
The Government of Mauritius attempted to contact the Government of Japan on 1 September for $3 million in assistance in improving the facilities of the National Fisheries Research Centre in Albion. However, this technique has been widely criticized for the lack of transparency and an agreement involving an additional $31 million for a hundred fishing vessels, as well as the education of 475 fishermen and 60 captains who were “not used to fishing in rough seas”.
Given the loss of 4 team members (three dead and the missing captain for two and a half weeks) of mauritius tugboat Sir Gaetan Duval, Mauritius fishermen risk venturing beyond the relative protection of Mauritius’ Great Coral. . Lagoons.
These are the very gaps that were affected by the Wakashio oil spill.
It is almost too much to believe, however, in 2020, some very basic facts still seem to be missing in the Wakashio case.
These are some of the exceptional data that has still been provided through the Mauritius government, the ship owner and insurer, or the United Nations maritime regulator, IMO.
The last official was on August 11, 4 days before the shipment was split in two. Not knowing how much oil was in the lagoon is a vital omission.
It’s been 8 weeks since the incident began and this lack of data is worrisome.
There is growing evidence that several foreign environmental laws may have been violated with the way Wakashio was brought out into the sea and intentionally sunk, which has already been denounced through foreign organizations such as Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd.
On 21 August 2020, at a televised press conference, the IMO representative shared many main points of the ship’s sinking operation, adding the contribution of the French government, suggesting that they would possibly also be aware of the sinking of the Wakashio. Comments have been requested from the French government.
Very fundamental questions that were asked to the IMO and the owner of the ship in the early days of the turn of destination and have not yet been provided. 49 whales and dolphins have died ever since. They are found in all species around the world and their deaths provoked national protests in Mauritius, which have never been noticed in the country since UK independence in 1968.
The lack of disclosure through foreign agencies on the floor in Mauritius, such as the IMO and ITOPF, has a particularly greater political threat than such serious omissions.
The joint UN-IMO project had in the past caused significant controversy, and its representative presented several facts incorrectly, such as describing the oil as a ‘hand cream’ on a televised occasion across the country. forcing the World Health Organization to factor an explanation of cancer in the short, medium and long term that causes the dangers of this type of oil spill and the kind of public fitness measures they have begun to take in Mauritius.
In a Statement from Forbes on 17 September, an IMO spokesperson said: “Qualified IMO personnel were promptly sent to Mauritius through the IMO and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), following a request for assistance from the Government of Mauritius. . He was at the site from 12 August to 4 September ».
The IMO’s commitment to Mauritius was a component of the International Convention on Preparation for Hydrocarbon Pollution (OPRC), and because the cleanup of oil spills is still far from completed, it is not known whether the Mauritius government contacted the IMO for further upward assistance, or what assistance the IMO has offered.
You will also want to ask questions about the type of legacy left through the IMO in Mauritius. Have the most empowered local officials felt to take on the day-to-day work and decisions of the next phase of the reaction to the oil spill with the right set of equipment and frameworks?Was there a transparent duty to the decisions and recommendations given through the IMO during its stay in the country?
There have been significant considerations in Mauritius about cleaning techniques following the emergence of mysterious brown algae on September 5 in Blue Bay Marine Park. This was a very worrying development and is an indicator of more serious underlying dangers to corals due to this algae flowering.
New questions were asked to all primary organizations involved in cleaning to perceive what techniques they had used, but no reaction was received. Similarly, the uncertainty about oil that has spilled into the lagoon is concerned about whether this could only have been the cause of the proliferation of destructive algae, which can kill corals in this very high area.
Prior to the flowering of algae on September 1, 2020, in reaction to a Forbes consultation on the use of dispersants, George Artemakis, Director of Polyeco’s Oil Spill Response Department, said: “Polyeco will not use any chemical dispersants in coastal cleanup operations in the affected areas. “Another foreign organization asked Forbes to withdraw his previous statements on the matter the next day.
How can these basic questions be so difficult to answer?Why are the answers so evasive? The oil spill region is an incredibly sensitive domain for the environment with some of the world’s most endangered species.
2020 was meant to be the most vital year of foreign environmental policy and yet there is a great lack of transparency in the component of all these organizations on the floor, which will actually have to dominate virtual communication seven months after the start. of a global pandemic of coronavirus. – that it was their clumsy reactions and responses that proved as problematic as the initial oil spill incident.
The delay in providing this data is disconcerting. These are fundamental facts (such as the amount of oil spilled into the lagoon) that are sure to be in the public domain for human and environmental health.
The occasions in Mauritius seem to be anything that would be more appropriate presented in John Grisham’s novel Pelican Brief. Except Mauritius is not a fictional story, and other genuine people suffer. There are also two decades in the 21st century and the generation is much more complex than what made the impression on the books and the film of the same name. Amid national protests opposed to how the oil spill was handled, a large-scale cyberattack was discovered on Facebook, forcing several software giants to investigate.
It is incredible that until 2020, UN agencies such as the IMO, national governments and the global shipping industry that are appropriate to behave without the duty, transparency and professionalism demanded through a small island country that has never called for this oil spill to be pushed. upon them, however, they are now asked to bear the burden of duty to clean this up.
The former president of Mauritius, an appointment, not a political position of a world-renowned biodiversity scientist, said it is “not fair. “All opposition political parties in Mauritius have held joint press conferences, saying it is not fair. and denouncing the reaction to the oil spill, because the right jobs – Parliament – have been suspended in Mauritius. More than 10% of the island (at least 100,000) defies the streets of Mauritius and says it is not fair. Team members of a Mauritius tugboat were lost. The foreign community’s indifference to those calls, and assuming it’s an oil spill reaction that goes well and doesn’t want to replace the course, is as staggering as the Wakashio incident itself.
They were settlers of the coast who, just a hundred years ago this year (1920), fought for the liberation of slavery and bondage by contract in the hard sugarcane plantations, and yet they had land and life for long generations.
It is one thing that this long term has been taken away from them with a primary business incident caused by complex regulations established in a remote set of institutions, corporations and countries.
It seems, then, to put the profits and greed of an industry before the wishes of the planet, or to the other people who depend to the fullest on it and who care for it. It’s 2020.
If ever there is a symbol of a world that wants to change, it is the damaged Wakashio and sitting on the coral reefs of Mauritius, whipped by the waves of the Indian Ocean.
I am a progressive economist oriented to innovation, sustainability and moral economic growth. Lately I’m working with leading generation corporations in Silicon Valley in
I am an economist of progression oriented to innovation, sustainability and moral economic expansion. Lately I’ve been working with leading generation corporations in Silicon Valley on opportunities for sustainable expansion, i. e. targeting low-income countries. I chair the LSE Ocean Finance Initiative, I am a member of the WEF Global Network of Experts and a member of the CCICED China Council. My e-book on sustainability in the fourth industrial revolution, Soul of the Sea in the Age of the Algorithm, focuses on a revival of oceans and climate and is based on me as an advisor in economics and innovation to Executive Directors and Global Governments of Fortune 500.