Richard “Max” Miller

Section 1

Environmental Justice in Oil Spills off the Coast of Venezuela and Mauritius

Oil spills are nothing to mess around with. The lively hood of entire nations of people are

at stake when it comes to the damages an oil spill can do. Not to mention, the amount of damage

it can do to the aquatic lifeforms and sea loving birds. Enter August of 2020 where the threat of

two major oil spill catastrophes loom large; one off the coast of Venezuela which threatens the

Caribbean Sea and one off the coast of Mauritius which is a crystal-clear lagoon. These oil spills

are unlike the ones that we have seen in the Exxon Valdez case or the Deep Water Horizon case.

These cases were crude oil spills where people are worried about the sheer amount of oil. In the

scenario that we find ourselves in we may find a little less oil being leaked into our oceans,

however these are bunker fuel oil spills. This means that, “they may be smaller in volume but

could become a lot more toxic in sunnier environments due to the effect of the sun’s ultra-violet

light on this heavy engine oil, turning it into an invisible, deadly chemical killer.” (Degnarain,

2020) However, the sheer amount of oil that these oil bunkers contain is nothing to bat an eye at.

It has been reported that the FSO Nabarima, a stationary storage facility contains 1.3 million

barrels of crude oil is on the verge of spilling in the Gulf of Praia of the Coast of Venezuela. The

MV Wakashio off the coast of south-east Mauritius contains less, but still a substantial one

million two hundred thousand kilograms have leaked out of the ship while three million six

hundred thousand kilograms has gone unapproached yet. This was first discovered via satellite

which has played an important role in this ongoing environmental justice case. (Khadka, 2020)
In this essay, I will be taking a look into how this serious issue for aquatic lifeforms and coastal

communities. The oil spill if left uncared for will continue to kill dolphins and will impact the

major tourism locations for many 3rd world countries. The governments of Venezuela and

Mauritius counter advocacy efforts pose an even greater danger to the unfolding of this

environmental justice case.

Location and Danger to the Surrounding Areas

One of the greatest concerns with both of these bunker fuel spills is the location of where

the ships have remained stationary. In both Venezuela and Mauritius, the vessels are spilling oil

into protected national parks. Venezuela’s Oil Spill leak occurred in Morrocoy National Park in

the North West of the country. The Wakashio vessel oil spill in Mauritius occurred in a network

of internationally protected coral and mangrove reserves in Pointe d’Esny in the South East of

the country, which was also home to rearing efforts of some of the rarest plants, birds, lizards,

and butterflies on the planet. (Degnarain, 2020) Jaime Bolaños-Jiménez, a marine ecologist at the

Venezuelan Ecological Society for Marine Life stated, “That spill could be catastrophic because

mangrove forests are amongst the most productive ecosystems [on] the planet.” A spill would

put sea turtles, seabirds, sharks, rays, and commercially important shrimp, fish, and mollusks at

risk. (Klewer 2020) The mangrove forests are known for being a fish breeding ground and

containing rich micro and biodiversity. Harmful chemicals such as Oil and cleaning agents could

take ages for the mangrove forests to recover from. Another concern specifically for the

Mauritius oil spill is the surrounding coral reefs in the area. Coral reefs are nicknamed the

rainforest of the ocean due to the fact that they contain so much biodiversity. It is estimated that

nearly twenty-five percent of all fish species rely on coral reefs. Coral reefs serve another
important job which isn’t talked about very much; they serve as natural barriers to protect

coastlines from storms and erosion. (Khadka, 2020) The threat of these diverse key areas for

aquatic life of the mangrove forests and the coral reef off the coast of Mauritius are amplified

due to the poor handling of the oil situation. An ecologist at the Venezuelan Ecological Society

for Marie Life stated, “When you spill oil, one of the first things you see is effort to contain it.

None of this was evident in any of the images I saw. I do not think they are even prepared for a

minor spill.” The worries don’t stop there when it comes to recovery efforts. It’s taken far too

long to do anything about the boat sink off the coast of Venezuela. Currently the ship is tilting at

roughly 25 degrees into the salt water. Even with what little has been done with the cleanup,

there has been of even greater harm to the aquatic ecosystems. In both Mauritius and Venezuela,

there has been concern about the usage of chemical clean up agents along with the very protected

areas of the coastline. Such chemicals, called dispersants, break down the oil into visible

particles that become easier to be absorbed by marine creatures and corals. This means that the

effects could be a lot more toxic, and the process of spreading harsh chemicals along fragile

shores, mangroves, and corals would do untold damage to ecosystems facing the pressures from

climate change, oil spill, and now a botched chemical cleanup operation. (Degnarain, 2020) Even

though Marine life as well as life that depends on the fragile areas are facing huge repercussions

from these oil spills, people’s livelihoods are also being affected.

The marine life as well as wildlife that relies on the ocean for survival is being uncared

for by the Venezuelan and Mauritian governments. Birds, Fish, aquatic habitats, and ecosystems

are all at danger and little to nothing is or has been done about it. This directly affects the

livelihood of fishermen and others who make their living off of the Caribbean sea. These
damages can be directly traced back to faulty and potentially illegitimate governments who have

shown no remorse for their actions.

Venezuelan and Mauritian Governments Involvement

Too add to difficulty of the Wakashio and the FSO Nabarima the corresponding

governments of Venezuela and Mauritius have been incredibly challenging to deal with. “In

Mauritius, the Government reassured the population that there was no risk when the single-hub

vessel had spent 12 days on Mauritian’ reefs, dragging by over 1 km, then as oil spilled into the

lagoon, the population were told it was a small leak, then the vessel split in two on [the]15th of

August and was deliberately sunk in the coral lagoon on [the]24th of August, to the consternation

of the entire population who then started seeing dozens of dead dolphins appear on their beaches.

(Degnarain, 2020) In Robert A. Goldberg’s, The Challenge of Change: Social Movements as

Non-State Actors, we learned about the specific tools at the state’s disposal. Goldberg states,

“neither passive nor neutral. State actors will expend the resources necessary to ensure the status

quo in policy and existing power relationships. Tenaciously holding on to governance, they have

a variety of weapons in their arsenal, employed singly or in combination, to confront

challengers.” (Goldberg, 2010) These tools include repression, preemption, information release,

cooptation, redirection, and influence. Both the Venezuelan and the Mauritius governments has

been actively participating in repression. These countries Mauritius did not disclose the amount

of oil that was leaked. It took external validation and satellites to prove what the impact was.

These secretive approaches ended up backfiring for environmental nonprofit groups which got in

trouble for potentially spying on foreign nations. Both Venezuelan and Mauritius’ governments

took this a step further and have tried to declare victory too quickly by trying to end the visual
pollution. However, by using chemical dispersants, this could have extended length of time the

impact would now have. This was not disclosed with and was revealed once again by secretive

operations. Mauritius further demonstrates repression which was exposed by the Truth and

Justice Commission which showed that many of the Mauritian government remains a

hierarchical society which is led by powerful Franco-Mauritian families and influential ‘high

caste’ Hindu Mauritians; Therefore, dynastic politics became the norm. (Truth Commission,

2018) In Venezuela’s case their leader has been participating in cooptation. The United States

government sees the regime of Maduro, the Venezuelan president, as illegitimate. Maduro has

seen a few coup attempts in his time in office and has arguably been a corrupt leader since he

was inaugurated. He has used his power in order to keep the status quo the same for him to be

able to stay in power.

This goes to show that the governments of Mauritius and Venezuela are not on the

people’s side. In fact, they directly oppose them. The people have been asking for clearer

information on the sinking of these ships, the damages to the environment, and cleanup efforts,

which has all been met with either silence or false statements. These governments have shown no

remorse for their actions against their people and communities.

Effects on the People and Marginalized Communities

A place where this environmental justice case doesn’t get the attention it needs is for the

social justice aspect of it. Several models that have been tried and tested by Simon Bolivar

University in Caracas showed that the oil spill could damage “the entire Gulf of Paria from the

Venezuelan coast to the west coast of Trinidad and Tobago, and even spread through the strait
between the two countries, out into the Caribbean Sea to the north.”(Maritime Activity Reports,

2020) The Caribbean relays heavily on the water for its economic income. For example;

according to UNWTO or, the United Nations World Tourism Organization, tourism revenue in

the Caribbean amounted to 32 billion U.S. dollars, up from 31.8 billion a year earlier.(Lopez

2020) This statistic has been increasing for as long as time, which shows that the Caribbean is

becoming more and more reliant on tourism for economic inflow with each passing year. In fact,

Statistica states that, “Mexico was the most visited country by international tourists in Latin

America and the Caribbean in 2018, with almost 41.5 million arrivals. In second place, but far

behind, comes Argentina with 6.9 million international visitors, overtaking Brazil, which

received around 6.6 million in that same year.” The Caribbean’s main draw for tourists are its

pristine beaches with their crystal-clear blue waters. These places will not be able to function

with massive clean up efforts kicking people off the beaches or contaminating the water. But

even worse, they couldn’t function with globs of oil splattered around the beach. This would

create an issue where many people in these industries would lose their jobs. In places like

Bermuda where about one fourth of the money it makes is on tourism this would be devastating

to its economy especially with the damage the coronavirus pandemic has already done. If a

quarter of this nation’s Gross Domestic Product were to vanish into thin air, people would go

hungry, lives would be lost, and sacrifices would have to be made. Not to mention that many of

our Caribbean neighbors tend to be in the bottom portion of income when compared to the rest of

the world, especially places such as Haiti. Caribbean Reliance on the ocean doesn’t stop there.

There is a large dependence for these nations on the fishing industry. Fishing is a year-round

activity in the Caribbean and it directly employs thousands of people while indirectly employing

thousands of more people. Fishing is seen as an artisanal trade for many of these nations, so the
act of fishing is very closely tied with the culture of this region. (World Fishing) If the oil starts

to flow into the Caribbean, this would cause massive economic failures as well as a loss of

culture in the surrounding countries. Fisheries would have to be closed for cleanup while many

of their product would die in the oil and the culture of a dozen separate nations would have to

take a step back in order for the aquatic life to heal.

In Mauritius’ case, this nation just became a relatively middle-income nation. However, a

major role played in their gain of wealth were industries in financial, industrial, tourism and

information technology. It’d be devastating to watch a nation who just got out of poverty be

affected by something that could have been prevented. Many of the lower-class citizen’s in

Mauritius rely on the Ocean for subsistence, culture and leisure. Many of these lower-class

citizens are Creoles, the descendants of African and Malagasy people who were brought to

Mauritius in the 1700’s and were forced into slavery. Since the abolishment of slavery in 1935 in

Mauritius, the descendants of the original Creoles moved to the coast and settled in villages.

(Boswell, 2020) The Creoles are a marginalized community who are still struggling with the

repercussions of their enslavement and the Dynastic politics which became normative when the

nation gained its independence in 1968. Rosabelle Boswell; a professor of Ocean Cultures and

Heritage, writes, “My concern is that the oil spill will be especially disastrous for vulnerable

coastal communities, not only because of immediate and long-term health implications, but

because these groups are marginalized. They are at greater risk of not being assisted in instituting

damages claims.” (Boswell, 2020) The fact of the matter is that marginalized communities, such

as the Creoles in this case, many times do not see the proper treatment that others tend to get. We

have talked extensively in this class about how neglected groups of people tend to be

immunocompromised. This means that groups of people who are oftentimes pushed away from
society tend to get sick easier due to the added daily stress they have in everyday life. (Brigham,

2020) This is especially Impactful when talking about the illnesses and the added stressors that

come with an Oil spill. Rosabelle Boswell writes, “People exposed [to oil spills] can suffer from

liver damage, skin and lung disorders, increased cancer risk, reproductive damage and post-

traumatic stress.” (Boswell, 2020) In addition to the health effects that come with an Oil spill,

since many of these people tend be poverty stricken, they will not get the proper medical

attention they need. When talking about the added stressors that come with an environmental

disaster such as this one the Creoles stress relievers have been stripped from them. The Creole

people have created the music and dance of the Sega which is traditionally preformed on the

surrounding beaches. These dance and music ceremonies provided these people with a much

needed reprieve from hard labor and an escape from everyday life. The music and dance of the

Sega can no longer be enjoyed the way they always have been with the beaches tarnished with

oil residue that goes up to the knee.

These people have had it with they way they have been treated. So much so now they

have found their voice and are putting their words into action. There has been public displays

and outcries in Venezuela and Mauritius which will be explored in the next topic.

Advocacy Efforts for a Better World

Many advocacy efforts have come out of this issue. For example, there has been national

outcries from the people of both Venezuela and Mauritius and other world environmentalist

organizations. Non-profit organizations have been stepping up the fight against big oil and global

shipping companies due to this issue. Greenpeace, a non-governmental environmental

organization, “has issued a series of stern letters against the operators of the shipping company

and salvage operation, calling for an international investigation into the deliberate sinking of the

Wakashio.” (Degnarain, 2020) The World Wildlife Foundation, or WWF for short, has called for

leaders to look at the regulations that surround how the global shipping industry is regulated and

are calling for support from them to step up and do their part to help reform this industry.

(Degnarain, 2020) The World Wildlife Foundation has also submitted a petition to the G20 (key

nations in the UN) that calls for four major changes. Theses four changes are a call to end ‘Flags

of Convenience’, A call to ban fossil fuels from ships, a call to ban single hull vessels

immediately, and safer habitats for large marine mammals. (Degnarain, 2020) The people of

Mauritius had organized a national protest in the 29th of August after the vessel was deliberately

sunk which saw dozens of dead dolphins started appearing on the shore. (Degnarain, 2020)

However, advocacy from the people of Mauritius doesn’t stop there. “A Facebook group titled

“Rivière des Creoles”, after a river in southeastern Mauritius, has shared images of oil soaked

mangroves, beaches and dead fish, and images of locals knee deep in oil residue.”(Boswell,

2020) Also in Mauritius The Truth and justice Commission has called for, “reparations by way

of positive discrimination and an integrated rehabilitation plan concerning schooling of children,

better housing conditions, elimination of discrimination on the employment market, whether in

the public and private sector, review of the electoral system in order to pave the way for better

representation in electoral constituencies of Creoles.” (Truth Commission, 2018) This is needed

now more than ever after the additional damage done to their community by way of the

Mauritian government. However, this is not the first time we have seen impacts on this large of a

scale.
 Similar Environmental Justice Cases

We can see Similarities in this Environmental Justice case when talking about the

Deepwater Horizon Oil spill and the Flint Michigan water crisis Environmental Justice cases. In

Both Flint and in Louisiana, Marginalized communities were hit harder with the repercussions of

their own crisis. In If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise - A Conversation w/ Spike Lee,

We saw how many of the government housing vicinities were being destroyed which were

predominantly lived in by lower class individuals of color. Many of these people had to move

elsewhere, sometimes even across the Nation. This was devastating for people who had such a

strong tie to the culture that surrounds New Orleans and Louisiana as a whole. (Lee, 2010) We

can pull similarities from the Flint Michigan water crisis how the people of Flint can’t get a say

in what happens to them. In flint the government tried to get it’s drinking water from a cheaper

source which ended up being undrinkable and potentially poisonous to consume. (Carey, 2019)

Flint is predominantly made up of people of color who once again, don’t get the same treatment

as others. Marginalized communities also tend to be more prone to disease and mental health

issues. We see all of this in The oil spills in Mauritius and Venezuela, where the people of

Venezuela cannot find a way to get a say on how the oil is dealt with and in Mauritius where The

marginalized people of the Creoles are more prone to see the environmental and health

repercussions of the oil spill.

Closing Thoughts

The Oil spills in Venezuela and Mauritius have major environmental impacts for the

surrounding area. The spills take place in key biodiverse areas such as the crucial mangrove
forests in the Atlantic and threaten the coral reefs off the shore of Mauritius. Thousands of fish

and other aquatic species will be killed if the proper steps are not followed through. Major

tourism and vacation hotspots for countries who rely on such an industry will suffer as well as

the culture that surrounds these costal communities. The health of the citizens is at danger due to

the fact that marginalized communities tend to have weaker immune systems due to the added

stressor that are already present in their everyday life. The Mauritian and Venezuelan

governments haven’t been helpful with their counter advocacy efforts by not sharing adequate

information and by instilling blatantly harmful laws. However, the advocacy efforts has shed

some light in this scenario; from the World Wildlife Foundations petition to the G20 for the four

major changes they see are needed to change so that this scenario doesn’t happen again to the

citizens of Mauritius organizing a formal national protest. This Environmental Justice case, if

handled poorly, could see repercussions from the damages done to the coastal community and

wildlife for years to come.

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