Five years after wakashio oil disaster, mauritius still grapples with environmental and legal questions

In August 2020, conservationist Vikash Tatayah found himself making an extraordinary phone call to friends in the UK who owned a private jet. His “unusual request”? An emergency evacuation flight for endangered geckos. This desperate measure came after one of Mauritius’ worst environmental disasters: the MV Wakashio oil spill that devastated the island nation’s pristine marine ecosystems.

The crisis began on July 25, 2020, when the Japanese-owned bulk carrier Wakashio ran aground on coral reefs off Mauritius’ southeastern coast. Within weeks, approximately 1,000 metric tons of oil leaked into the ocean, creating a slick that eventually covered nearly 30 square kilometers of coastal waters. The timing couldn’t have been worse—Mauritius was under COVID-19 lockdown with closed airspace, severely limiting response efforts.

The spill threatened some of Mauritius’ most ecologically significant areas, including Blue Bay Marine Park, a renowned coral hotspot, and the Pointe d’Esny Wetland, a protected Ramsar site rich with mangroves. As oil currents pushed northward toward Vieux-Grand-Port, they endangered the Ile aux Aigrettes Nature Reserve, home to the threatened lesser night geckos that Tatayah worked frantically to save. The ship eventually broke apart on August 15, compounding the environmental catastrophe.

More than five years later, questions about the disaster’s long-term environmental impact, cleanup effectiveness, and legal accountability continue to plague this Indian Ocean island nation, highlighting the lasting consequences of maritime disasters on fragile marine ecosystems.