Should the Captain of the Wakashio be held responsible for dead dolphins
Any maritime disaster will have severe impact on assets, people and environment.. The effects of the oil spill from the Wakashio is beginning to manifest itself as there have been several reports of dead dolphins washing ashore on the beaches of Mauritius, even as the bow of the ship has been scuttled and sunk about 14 nautical miles of where the incident happened..
The Captain of the Wakashio has been arrested and charged and currently faces a possible 60 year jail term for failing to safely navigate the vessel in Mauritius waters..
What is your opinion..?? Should the Captain of the ship be responsible for this incident and is a possible 60 year jail term (if convicted) justified..??
The Wakashio oil spill in Mauritius – what happened and lessons learnt
The MV Wakashio left China on 14 July, heading for Brazil. The vessel, owned by Nagashiki Shipping and operated by Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd, hit a coral reef, Pointe d’Esny, Mauritius on 25 July, 2020.
What is significant about this incident is that the vessel was carrying 4,000 tonnes of heavy oil, lubricants and diesel, a large amount of which was pumped out but a significant amount still entered into the Indian Ocean.
Here is an overview of what happened, the clean up measures and lessons learnt from this maritime disaster..