Anxious Mauritians use hair to stem Japanese ship's oil spill
Mauritians are making floating booms of human hair
and leaves in a round-the-clock scramble to mop up oil leaking from a grounded
Japanese ship onto their pristine Indian Ocean beaches.
The MV Wakashio, owned by the Nagashiki Shipping
Company and operated by Mitsui OSK Line, began oozing fuel into turquoise sea
waters last week after hitting a reef off the island.
Mauritius has declared a state of emergency and
former colonial ruler France has sent aid in what environmental group
Greenpeace said could be a major ecological crisis.
Romina Tello, 30-year-old founder of eco-tourism
agency Mauritius Conscious, spent the weekend helping clean black sludge from
mangrove swamps. She said Mauritians were making booms to float on the sea out
of sugar cane leaves, plastic bottles and hair that people were voluntarily
cutting off.
“Hair absorbs oil but not water,” Tello explained by
phone. “There’s been a big campaign around the island to get the hair.”
Videos online show volunteers sewing leaves and hair
into nets to float on the surface and corral the oil until it can be sucked up
by hoses.
Diving centres, fishermen and others have all joined
in the cleanup effort, with some providing sandwiches, guesthouses offering
free accommodation to volunteers and hair salons offering discounts to those
donating hair, Tello said.
The oil spill is near the Blue Bay Marine Park,
known for its spectacular corals and myriad fish species.
“It is really moving – everyone is doing what we
can. It breaks our hearts to see the damage,” Tello said.
Mauritius relies on tourism as a major contributor
to its economy, 63 billion rupees ($1.6 billion) last year.
“We apologise profusely and deeply for the great
trouble we have caused,” Akihiko Ono, executive vice president of Mitsui OSK
Lines, told reporters in Tokyo on Sunday, pledging to do everything possible to
stem the spill.
At least 1,000 tonnes of oil is estimated to have
leaked, with 500 tonnes salvaged and some 2,500 tonnes remaining.
