The bulk carrier that ran aground on a coral reef off the southeast coast in Mauritius on July 25 has split in half. The ship was en route from China to Brazil with it’s final port of call in Singapore.
Officials have stated that multiple cracks in the hull and bad weather are what caused the ship to break apart on Saturday, August 16.
Aerial photos show a Japanese oil tanker split in two and stranded off the island of #Mauritius in the #IndianOcean, into which it is leaking fuel. Scientists say the spill is Mauritius’s worst ecological disaster. 🇲🇺 pic.twitter.com/gMxrBC2LeG
— Shen Shiwei沈诗伟 (@shen_shiwei) August 17, 2020
The tanker contained 3,894 metric tons of low-sulphur fuel oil, 207 metric tons of diesel and 90 metric tons of lubricant oil. The ship leaked around 1,000 tons of fuel into the azure ocean, jeopardising two marine protected areas and the Blue Bay Marine Park reserve. The Prime Minister of Mauritius declared the incident a state of environmental emergency.
Image credit: Twitter/ @shen_shiwei
