Reactive
Johannesburg, 26 August, 2020 – At least four dead and four ailing dolphins were found stranded this morning on Mauritius’ shores, one month after Japanese vessel MV Wakashio ran aground, causing an oil spill. An urgent investigation is needed to determine the cause of the strandings and if they are linked to the spill.
Happy Khambule, Greenpeace Africa Senior Climate and Energy Campaign Manager, said: “This is a deeply sad and alarming day for the people of Mauritius and for its singular biodiversity, itself known and appreciated by the worldwide biodiversity community. Greenpeace appeals to the authorities to carry out a swift, transparent and public autopsy on the bodies collected.”
On Monday, 24 August, Greenpeace Africa and Greenpeace Japan joined local human rights organisation Dis Moi in a letter to the Government of Mauritius, calling for greater transparency and accountability in their handling of the crisis and calling for three key investigations. The stranding of an extraordinary number of mammals this morning reinforces how urgent these demands are.
Vijay Naraidoo, co-director of Dis Moi, said: “The ocean is part of who we are. The whole country including coastal communities depend on its health. That is why many Mauritians woke up anguished and afraid that the oil spill may be killing it. Such biodiversity loss is an ominous development for what might come as a result of the oil spill.”
Cetaceans are already facing serious threats from climate change, plastic pollution, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and habitat loss. The long term impacts of the oil spill are yet to be determined, but will likely affect turtles, seabirds, and much of the marine life in the area.
END
Photos available here with credit.
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Tal Harris, International Communications Coordinator, +221-774643195 (WhatsApp), [email protected]
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Discussion
C’est une grande catastrophe pour L’Humanité et pour la forme. Notre dirigeant et le pouvoir en place sont des incapables. il est vraiment Inadmissible de voir une telle situation à nos jours même l’argent ne pourra jamais y remédier a cette catastrophe.
Plz help, in Mauritius all the dolphins are dying our Prime Minister is not doing nothing. Plz plz help these poor dolphins 🙏🙏🙏
It's not 4 but 17 dead dolphins which have been found on the coast of Mauritius as at 18.00hrs on Wednesday the 26th of Aug 2020. Thanks for your support to Mauritius. Being a Mauritian i feel proud that there are organisation like yours in the world to help prevent such calamaties from occur again. Keep it up 👍
There is no need to investigate , we (mauritians) have lots of footages and pictures of oil in the mouth of those poor daulphins . Its all the government fault , the wreck and oil spilling could have been prevented but they did nothing and afterwords they sank what was left from the wakashio in a place where daulphins and whale naturally come for reproduction .
It is a crime please please don't let us drown.
Working together we can bring change.
Thank you...sooo much for your support to the mauritian people..of course this disaster should have been avoided only if we had taken the wright decision at the wright time...15 or more days lost uselessly...upon decisions taken by the owner of the floating dustbin...we had the chinese virus...and now the Japanese dustbin wreck......ecological ans economical disaster....taking décades to clear out....de depend a lot of tourism for our economy...A BIG DISASTER FOR MAURITIUS...THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP.....
Thank you for supporting us. Companies and governments should stop the production of fossil fuel and switch to environmental safe alternatives, to avoid further damage to our fragile planet.
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I'm sure this call wont be heard by the govt of mauritius. As a fellow mauritian without being any sort of expert of whatsoever, i can say that this matter was taken lightly by the govt because no immediate action was taken since the first day that the MV Wakashio capsized on the coral reef of pointe d'esny. And now we are seeing dead dolphins on the beach at the site where the spill happened. Just read an article where they said that the dolphins were not affected by the incident and that there are shark bites on them. Who knows which information is true.. but really we need external help about this matter!
Hi Ravin, thank you for sharing this with us. Most government do not listen and will do anything to gaslight the matter at hand. Transparency and accountability is what we need from them. However, them not listening to our calls will not stop us, together we are united.
The Govt having allowed a fortnight to elapse without doing nothing is criminal and totally unjustified as we are now seeing dead dolphins, dead fish, dead turtles and more due to the oil spill contaminating the waters. There will be more to come rest assured. This needs to be thoroughly investigated and those accountable for their inaction and incompetence brought to justice. This is inadmissible in 2020.
We totally agree with your statement. This is the most heinous environmental crime.
The corrupted government of Mauritius is still lying and saying their deaths are not related to the oil spill yet we have never seen them dying on our shores ever!!
They are not telling us the whole truth about this matter. We demand transparency.
Am with you if I can help
thank you for your support, please sign the petition https://act.greenpeace.org/page/66554/petition/1
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Letters to Governments and Ceo's are very important , but do they really care about the damage they have caused. Obviously somebody down the line from the top to the bottom of the chain of responsibility will be the scapegoat for this disaster. Shifting responsibility and blame will all be part of this and those who have the power and the financial means to avoid such disasters will no doubt walk away without and finger or guilt placed upon them . Then they are free to do it again
People and the environmental should and must come before profit.
Vi kan inte acceptera detta, stöder Greenpeace till 100 proceny.
Verkligen, tack för ditt stöd.
Greenpeace plz help Mauritus dolphins hundreds are dying. Sick dolphins are being pushed in open waters to their certain death
We are behind Mauritus all the way, this is a serious environmental injustice and crime.
We hear your outcry and together we can put an end to the production of fossil fuel.
THE JAPANESE MUST PAY FOR THE DAMAGE BIG TIME! THEY SHOULD BE FINED VERY HARD!
Thank you for your comment. Let us be kind in our interactions. However, we do agree all culprits must be held accountable.