The captain and first officer of a freighter that crashed into a coral reef off the coast of Mauritius, unleashing the Indian Ocean archipelago’s worst environmental disaster, were sentenced to 20 months in prison on Monday.
“The court took into consideration the fact that both defendants pleaded guilty and apologized. The sentence handed down is 20 months in prison, “said Magistrate Ida Dookhy Rambarrun.
The MV Wakashio, a Japanese-owned but Panamanian-flagged ship, ran aground in July 2020, spilling more than 1,000 tons of toxic fuel into crystal clear waters, covering mangroves, corals and other fragile ecosystems.
The ship’s captain, Sunil Kumar Nandeshwar, who was convicted by a court in the capital Port Louis last week, admitted to drinking during a birthday party on board.
He and the first officer, Hitihanillage Subhoda Janendra Tilakaratna, were found guilty of “endangering the safety of navigation”.
“The captain and his second in command were irresponsible and did not fulfill their ‘navigational duties as they should,’” the magistrate said Monday.
The MV Wakashio was sailing from Singapore to Brazil with 3,800 tonnes of fuel oil and 200 tonnes of diesel on board when it struck the reef off the southeast coast of Mauritius.
During the trial, the captain said that he had given instructions to approach the waters of Mauritius in order to gain access to a mobile phone network so that the crew members could communicate with their families.
“The sea was bad, but the visibility was clear and it was safe to navigate … At one point, the ship could not move and had touched the bottom of the sea,” Nandeshwar said.
“As I had had a few drinks, it didn’t seem worthwhile to intervene and it didn’t occur to me that we were sailing so close.”
– Ecologically critical: more than 1,000 tons of oil leaked into waters teeming with marine life from a cut in the ship’s hull before rescue crews could remove all the remaining fuel.
The accident occurred near two ecologically critical sites: Blue Bay, known for its coral gardens, and Pointe D’Esny, which is home to a mangrove forest, a crucial ecosystem and a weapon in the fight against global warming.
In the days after the accident, thousands of volunteers mobilized along the shoreline in rubber boots and gloves, clearing rocks and tying makeshift shoelaces to stem the oily tide.
Thousands of people also took to the streets in the following months to protest the government’s reaction to the disaster.
The ship eventually split in two.
Her bow and hull were towed 15 kilometers (nine miles) offshore and sunk.
The process to dismantle the aft section and remove it from the reef began earlier this year, but has been postponed many times due to bad weather and strong waves.