A  lot of dolphins stranded on Mauritius

the coast of Mauritius was the scene of a sad spectacle. About ten dolphins stranded on the beaches in front of helpless people. Measures have been put in place to try to save them, but the toll remains heavy. While we cannot help but make the link with the oil spill that recently hit the island, the causes of this massacre remain unclear, and several hypotheses have been developed to try to explain it.

An unprecedented stranding

Dolphin strandings are always very difficult to explain and observe. In the early morning of August 26, 2020, the Grand Sable beach offered a sad sight ... Throughout the day, more than a dozen Electra dolphins came to run aground on the sand, some being still alive. Others also had injuries, the origin of which is still unknown.

Figures on the exact number of victims vary between 12 and 18 depending on the source, but it is highly likely that this toll - uncertain as it is - will worsen. Indeed, other dolphins floating on the surface of the water have been spotted by fishermen, and may well come to swell the ranks. Local authorities and Greenpeace Africa have called for an urgent investigation to be able to find out the reasons for these deaths as soon as possible.

The oil spill involved?

At the beginning of August, Mauritius was already making headlines due to the disaster caused by the grounding of the Japanese ship MV Wakashio. The latter was indeed blocked not far from the coast, causing a heavy oil spill with consequences for an already fragile ecosystem. Following this stranding of dolphins, many people have made a direct link with the presence of hydrocarbons in the sea.

But in truth, nothing is certain until autopsies have been performed on the remains that have been recovered. A member of the NGO Mauritius Marine Conservation Society has put forward another hypothesis. This could explain this event and the injuries observed on the bodies of the dolphins, caused by a sad coincidence.

"Probably they followed a school of fish into the lagoon, lost their bearings and failed to get back to sea, and they sought to reach the sea by passing directly over the coral reef rather than finding the past. Panicked and stressed, they hit the corals, exhausted themselves and died, ”said Owen Griffiths.