At least 40 dolphins have mysteriously died in an area of Mauritius affected by an oil spill from a Japanese boat, officials and witnesses said on Friday, as a witness described the moment one mother dolphin died in front of him.
Residents who had ventured out in a boat alerted Reuben Pillay to a mother dolphin swimming around her dying baby. He sped off to try to find them; the baby had died by the time he arrived, he said, but the mother initially looked normal.
“But in a few minutes she went on her side, one fin in the water, and one out of the water and then she started flapping her tail really really rapidly,” said Pillay, a professional drone operator and environmentalist who is providing video to Reuters.
