Mauritius oil spill: Experts fear catastrophic ecological disaster

Thousands of students, environmental activists and residents of Mauritius are working around the clock trying to reduce the damage to the Indian Ocean island from an oil spill after a tanker ran aground on a coral reef. The tanker is badly damaged. There are fears that soon even more oil will burst and spill from it. It spilled an estimated 1,000 tons of oil into the Indian ocean. This is heavily polluting the island's coastline.

Much fish life and marine life has been lost because of this environmental hazard. More emergency response teams should be put together than pump back the spilled oil. This was a oil spill disaster for humanity. Humans have made mistakes. This is frustrating. Much wild life will die and be destroyed because of this. This is sad. Hopefully Mauritius can collect all that oil. This is a big mess to clean up.

Mauritius, an Indian Ocean island nation, is known for its beaches, lagoons and reefs. The mountainous interior includes Black River Gorges National Park, with rainforests, waterfalls, hiking trails. There is wildlife like the flying fox. Capital Port Louis has sites such as the Champs de Mars horse track, Eureka plantation house and 18th-century Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Gardens.

The island of Mauritius was uninhabited before its first recorded visit by the Dutch in the late 16th century.

The Treaty of Tordesillas purported to give Portugal the right to colonise this part of world. In 1507, Portuguese sailors came to the uninhabited island and established a visiting base. Diogo Fernandes Pereira, a Portuguese navigator, was the first European known to land in Mauritius. He named the island "Ilha do Cirne" ("Island of Cirne"). The Portuguese did not stay long as they were not interested in these islands.