Mauritian Ex-President Demands Shippers Speak Out on Oil Spill

(Bloomberg) -- Mauritian former President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim has criticized the shipping industry for a “deafening” silence on the vessel that spilled oil and caused the worst ever ecological disaster for the island nation.

The Wakashio leaked about 1,000 tons of fuel into the water after it run aground on the Indian Ocean island nation’s southeastern coast last month. Nagashiki Shipping Co., the ship owner, said earlier, it will respond in “good faith” and in accordance with the law.

There have been no details given publicly yet on issues, including why a ship sailing to Brazil from China came too close to the island, and on the type of fuel it was carrying.

“We are waiting for answers,” Gurib-Fakim said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “One thing we know is that our beaches are now very, very badly impacted.”

The spill will broadly impact Mauritius’s marine and tourism industry that the nation relies on for revenue and employs at least a fifth of the workforce. It’s feared to cause irreversible damage to a delicate ecosystem of rare species of marine life including whales and baby turtles.

The extent of damage is unknown, given that some of the fuel that the ship had and was spilled, is a new type, according to Gurib-Fakim. “We have no idea, but now we are the victim.”

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