This Devastating Spill Is a Big Problem for Oil
The fuel leak from the MV Wakashio, which ran aground on a coral reef off Mauritius, shows the shipping and oil industries must clean up their acts.
No place for a bulk carrier like the MV Wakashio.
Source: International Maritime Organization
Don’t dismiss the leak of oil from the MV Wakashio that ran aground last month on a reef off the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius so quickly. The volume lost may seem tiny, but its location, mixed with other pressures already faced by the oil industry, means that it will have an impact far beyond its size.
The empty bulk carrier was 11 days into a month-long voyage from Singapore to Brazil, where it was due to pick up a cargo, when it ran aground just a mile off the island’s southern tip on July 25. About three-quarters of the oil in its tanks — some 3,900 tons of very low-sulfur fuel oil, 200 tons of diesel and 90 tons of lubricant — was transferred off the vessel. The rest leaked into the sea — much of it coming ashore in the Ile aux Aigrettes nature reserve, home to the last remnants of Mauritius’s dry coastal forest and the endangered species that depend on it.