By April Norris
Although previously denying the deaths, several dead dolphins have been found floating near the oil slick last March caused by Santos in Western Australia.
Twenty-five thousand litres of oil were leaked from an underwater hose.
In November they argued that dead dolphins had been seen a few hours after the spill, claiming it was too early for their deaths to have been a result from the oil spill.
However, the company also couldn’t know this for sure since they never sent environmental experts to the Lowendal Islands until over a week after the accident had occurred.
These islands are forty-six miles away from the western Australian coast which is known for its perfectly white sandy beaches, turquoise blue water and full of marine and bird life. Since this incident, sea snakes have been ‘withered in agony’
The whistle blower an ex-employee of Santos said: “Tens of thousands of litres of oil in the ocean, dead dolphins and sea snakes. How was this negligible?… They could not have known the real scale of impact; it was never checked”
The whistle blower also added that other employees had also stood up to the company internally, arguing that the companies conduct was deceptive and going against its own code of conduct and potentially even breaking the law.
Not only has this incident caused death and destruction to marine life it has also raised questions about the marine environmental protections and safety record.
Western Australia’s conservation body said that this spill is the latest news in Santos’s: “very poor environmental and safety record… It is vital that regulators make an example of Santos. Petty fines are simply not enough to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.”.
“How many incidents like this might we not know about, simply because the likes of Santos neglected to tell us?” Maggie Wood said involved with Western Australia’s conservation.
This expose’s fears for the future and that perhaps our marine life and environment is not as safe as we would like to think so.