Mapping the extent of Oil Spill in Mauritius using Radar Remote Sensing
- Arpit Shah
- Aug 14, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 28
MV Wakashio, a Bulk carrier owned by Japanese shipping company Nagashiki, was on its way to Brazil after delivering its consignment of iron-ore to China where human negligence is likely to have caused the vessel to collide with a reef in shallow waters off the south-eastern coast of Mauritius on the evening of 25th July 2020. Rough seas made it difficult for the inexperienced Mauritian authorities to refloat the vessel, or at the very least extract the 4000 tonnes of fuel within.
The worst fears came to pass on 6th August 2020 when the bunker tank was breached and fuel started leaking into the pristine turquoise waters. As the prospect of irreversible devastation loomed large on the island country's famed reefs, beaches and lagoons, a state of emergency was declared by the Mauritian government and the calls for international assistance, particularly from France (as its neighboring island Réunion is an overseas French territory), intensified.
By the time the seas were conducive to reach the vessel and pump out the remaining oil from the tank (12th August), 1000 tonnes i.e. 7000 barrels equivalent had already leaked into the ocean and was spreading at the rate of knots. This was a timely intervention as the ship broke into two on 15th August and a major crisis was averted.
For extracting Earth Observation information at a regional-scale or beyond, Remote Sensing through satellites is the most preferred and cost-effective option. With comprehensive missions like ESA's Copernicus allowing Open Access, it is possible for virtually anyone to extract meaningful observations from satellite imagery in quick time with some training and just a personal computer - something that was only in the realm of scientists and academic researchers not so long ago.
And this is what I set out to do. While the methodology of extracting Oil Spill from Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite imagery can be viewed here, the final output from my independent study to map the extent of the Oil Spill in Mauritius can be viewed below-
(Sentinel-1B imagery has a spatial resolution of 5 m by 20 m)
The devastation caused by the Oil Spill was considerable - it was reported that marine creatures were dying in numbers and toxic oil fumes were causing discomfort and health issues for the residents along the coast. All-in-all, this is a major blow to the tourism-reliant Mauritian economy.
The Finnish micro-satellite operator ICEYE shared this output on 11th August (Figure 3 below) - it is evident that a greater area was affected by the Oil Spill than what I had found, just a day prior. This could be attributed to the fact that ICEYE's radar satellite constellation is specially calibrated to detect Oil Spills, however, the spillage was spreading very quickly too - from 3.3 square kilometers detected by ICEYE itself on the the first day (6th August) to 27 square kilometers just five days later, as depicted in the figure below-
Compared to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, where a whopping 3.19 million barrels equivalent of oil was leaked into the Gulf of Mexico, this incident was much smaller in magnitude. However, one cannot ignore the increase in Oil Spill incidents in ecologically-sensitive regions of late - in the Arctic Ocean notably, which calls for pensive consideration - regarding the shipping routes used, the need to accelerate the switch to Renewables and the absolute necessity of having Early Warning Systems and Emergency Response mechanisms in order to combat and contain such ecological disasters.
I can't help but feel that the year 2020 is nature's way of telling us to mend our relationship with the environment before it is too late.
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