Cleaning up 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 errors that have resulted in the deaths of nearly 50 whales and dolphins that have died off the coast of Mauritius in recent 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 coral lagoon domain covering 125 square meters. kilometers had been cordoned off, covering a 36-kilometre-long 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 happens when the operator of the Japanese giant of Wakashio, Mitsui OSK Lines, has delivered a reefer container to Mauritius for the storage of seafood. the lagoon to fish.
Instead of being a white elephant, those amenities now provide Mauritius scientists with the right amenities to purchase the large-scale biological sampling required for proper clinical testing of this component of the island, adding the 49-whale and dead dolphin carcass garage. until the full autopsy is performed.
The government press release shows that fish of other species were sampled, adding crustaceans, and tested at Quantilab’s personal laboratory in Mauritius, which is the laboratory guilty of testing racehorses, a hobby on the island. Fish tests included heavy metals, hydrocarbons in general (HCT), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).
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 the delay between sampling and public exchange of results?
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 August 14 and September 8 is deeply worrying, as operational data wants to be transmitted in a time close to the genuine to ensure that non-governmental actors and civil society participate in reaction efforts after oil spills.
Inaccurate, limited and delayed data partly explain why so many other people in Mauritius have protested in recent weeks because of the erosion of confidence in government. until Saturday’s national marches.
Many foreign observers are surprised by the unfortunate undersampling situation in Mauritius. Even 21 samples are statistically significant to conduct significant variance research. 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 which the 49 dead whales and dolphins died and went to shore?
All of this is very unexpected when many countries with complex sea science functions such as the United States, Canada, Australia and 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 appear to have been marginalized through a “government knows how to do better” approach.
Even the IMO representative’s claims 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 earlier 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 was only 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 the time showed that the spread of oil had spread much further north of Deer Island.
It now turns out that these satellite photographs of the personal sector were validated through evidence that took a position four miles north of the Wakashio crash site at the time of sar analysis. Fish from The South East River, Two Brothers, Freshwater Hole and even Palmar, which lies four kilometres north along the coast, discovered fish unfit for human intake on August 14 and 15, even when foreign ministers and “experts” had publicly declared that there was no oil in those places.
So why did this data just be published, how much fish was fed between August 14 and 28 when those spaces were nevertheless 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 Government of Mauritius, this refrigerated container is valued at $125,000. The loss of tourism and fishing in this component of the island can barely amount to heaps of millions of dollars, not to mention the loss of exclusive biodiversity.
Statements to the company’s press 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-kilometre domain in Mauritius’ largest coral lagoon.
Perhaps if foreign organizations had started by asking other people in the region what they want and want rather than offering 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 hydrocarbon spill, it became clear that biological sampling (fish sampling to check the chemical signatures of HAPs from hydrocarbon spills) should be increased especially.
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.
On 1 September, the Government of Mauritius had attempted to contact the Government of Japan to ask 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 another $31 million for a hundred fishing vessels, as well as the education of 475 fishermen and 60 captains who were “not accustomed 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, the 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 s 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 increased the political threat as a result of such serious omissions.
The joint UN-IMO project had already caused significant controversy, with its representative presenting several facts incorrectly, such as describing the oil as a ‘hand cream’ at a national televised event, and forcing the World Health Organization to factor an explanation of the short. Medium- and long-term cancer that causes dangers from this type of oil spill and the kind of public aptitude measures they have initiated. Mauricio.
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 ».
Since the IMO’s commitment to Mauritius was part of the International Convention on Preparation for Hydrocarbon Pollution (OPRC), and the cleanup of hydrocarbon spills is still far from complete, it is not known whether the Government of Mauritius contacted the IMO for further cleaning assistance. phase, or what help the IMO has offered.
You will also want to ask questions about the type of legacy left by 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 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 that this may only be the cause of the proliferation of destructive algae, which can kill corals in this 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 destined to be the most vital year in foreign environmental policy and yet there is a great lack of transparency on the part of all these organizations on the floor, which will actually have to dominate virtual communication in seven months. after the onset of a global coronavirus pandemic. – that it was their uncomfortable reactions and responses that turned out to be as problematic as the initial oil spill incident.
The delay in providing this data is disconcerting, they are basic questions in fact (such as the amount of oil spilled into the lagoon) that are surely 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 the way 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 on, yet they are now being asked to bear the burden of cleaning this up.
The former president of Mauritius, an appointment, not a political office of a world-renowned biodiversity scientist, said “it is not fair. ” All opposition political parties in Mauritius have held joint press conferences, saying that it is not fair, and denouncing the reaction to the oil spill, because the right jobs – Parliament – in Mauritius have been suspended. More than 10% of the island (at least 100,000) walk the streets of Mauritius and say that it is not fair. Four members of the team The foreign community’s indifference to those calls, and assuming that it is an oil spill reaction going well and not wanting to replace course, is as staggering as the Wakashio incident itself.
These are villagers of the coast who, 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 a land and a 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 is to appear that it puts 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 to the fullest. 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 an economist of progression focused on innovation, sustainability and moral economic growth. Lately I’m working with leading generation corporations in Silicon Valley
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 to the economics and innovation of Fortune 500’s global governments and CEOs. I have a degree in progressive economics from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and the University of Cambridge.