Environmentalists have also called for an investigation into whether the dolphin’s death occurred as a result of the spill, when the bulk carrier Vakashio hit the coral reef last month.
One protester put up a banner with a dolphin covered in oil reading “The talk of our lives” and another called on the government to resign. Mauritius flags were waved in the filled square of St. Louis Cathedral.
Fabiola Monti, an environmental scientist, said: “We do not trust the information we are giving to the government and the management and responses to the oil spill.”
The government has said that it will carry out a carcass on all the dolphins and set up a commission to look into the spill. Two investigations are being carried out: one by the police on the crew’s responsibilities and one by a senior shipping ministry officer of the ship.
According to preliminary autopsy results, only two dolphin carcasses have been examined so far, which have bruises, but no trace of oil in their bodies. The autopsy on the first two was conducted by the government-run Albion Fisheries Research Center.
According to Jaswen Sok Appadu of the Ministry of Fisheries, on Wednesday and Thursday, 25 dolphins were autopsied which were washed in the coming days.
A local environmental group, Eco-Sud, which participated in Saturday’s protest, said in a statement on Friday that civil society representatives should be present during the autopsy and called for a second opinion from independent experts.
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