Oil spill incident along part of Mahé’s east coast |23 January 2015

The Ministry of Environment and Energy has started an investigation into an oil spill incident in the sea in the vicinity of the coast guard headquarters at Ile Perseverance .

The ministry was alerted of a significant amount of oil seen floating in the sea on Monday this week.
Officers from the ministry were deployed to the scene to assess the situation.

Monitoring of the oil movement was conducted throughout the day, after which investigative work began on the source of the oil spill.

Consequently various reports were recorded throughout Monday and Tuesday of oil seen floating in the sea around the Angel Fish Marina at Eden Island and Les Mamelles lagoon and even oil being disposed of within the PUC sewage pump station at Roche Caiman (Kosovo). Contractors have been deployed and are cleaning up oil that has been deposited on the shoreline in the Roche Caiman area.

Yesterday the officers continued to monitor the situation and are yet to identify the source of the oil.

The ministry is calling on members of the public who has any information on the possible source of the oil spill to call the Greenline (2722111) and assist in the ongoing investigation.

It is to be noted that it is an offence under Section 7 (5) of the Environment Protection Act 1994 to discharge any effluent or throw, deposit, or place any polluting or hazardous substance or waste or any obstructing matter into any watercourse or in the territorial waters of Seychelles.
Accompanying the article are some photos taken of the oil spill.