Port-Louis is said to have arrested the captain of the MV Wakashio ship responsible for oil spills of over 1,000 tonnes in Mauritius water. Other members of the crew are also currently being investigated by the authorities to enable Mauritius clearly understand the incident or activities that lead to the unfortunate incident.

The Indian captain of the ship which ran aground off the coast of Mauritius, Sunil Kumar Nandeshwar, was arrested on Tuesday by the Mauritian police on the accusation of endangering the safety of navigation. The ship would have normally had to dock at least 10 miles from the shore but ran aground on a coral reef about 2 miles from the shore. All crew members are also being investigated as to why the vessel deviated from its route.

The bill of Nagashiki Shipping, the owners of the ship, could be higher than they expected if the investigations reveal that there was a technical fault of the crew, that is if Port-Louis already planned to request repairs.

A Mauritian maritime offical told Reuters that “the route set five days before the incident was bad and the boat’s navigation system should have reported it to the crew. But it seems that this one ignored it. The boat also did not send an SOS after running aground and did not respond to attempts by the coast guard to contact it.”

The MV Wakashio was carrying close to 4,000 tons of fuel and ran aground on a reef on July 25th in what environmentalists have tagged as a major ecological disaster. About 2,500 metric tons of oil is still said to be on board the ship that left China on July 14th on its way to Brazil. It polluted the heart of the Mauritian coast which is the main tourist asset of the land.

The operator of the ship had already apologised for the unfortunate incident and promised to “do everything in its power to resolve the issue.”