Grounded carrier has split in half and poor conditions make removal of ship’s remaining oil risky

International experts and thousands of local volunteers were making frantic efforts on Sunday to protect Mauritius’s pristine beaches and rich marine wildlife after hundreds of tonnes of oil was dumped into the sea by a Japanese tanker in what some scientists called the country’s worst ecological disaster.

Related: Grounded carrier off Mauritius breaks apart risking ecological disaster

Related: This oil spill could destroy the beautiful Mauritius I once knew | Alex Lenferna