Ship That Oozed Oil off Mauritius Coast Splits in Two
News 18A ship that has leaked more than 1,000 tonnes of oil in pristine waters off the coast of Mauritius has split in two. "It was confirmed on August 15 that the vessel has broken into two," the ship's operator Mitsui OSK Lines said in a statement Sunday, noting that the information came from the vessel's owner, Nagashiki Shipping. The spill already qualifies as the "worst ecological disaster" for the Indian Ocean island nation, Greenpeace Africa campaigner Happy Khambule said, adding that it "puts unique species under immediate threats". That portion includes the ship's engine room, which still contains 30 cubic metres of oil, and rough weather will complicate efforts to pump that oil out, according to a statement Sunday from the Mauritian crisis committee formed to respond to the spill. The crisis committee expects rough weather for the next five days, "with high energy swells of a maximum height of 3.5 metres ", the statement said.