Nowadays, oil can be regarded as a major asset with countries extracting this resource on a massive scale to meet the needs of industry.
Sadly enough the need to fulfill this demand has brought about one of the world's largest ecological problems - the oil spill. The world has witnessed hundreds of such incidents, albeit of different sizes.
A recent major oil spill occurred just several weeks ago after the distressed Japanese cargo ship Wakashio ran aground on 26 July off Mauritius.
Following the incident, the boat began to leak oil into the ocean with satellite images showing a large dark patch in the water around the damaged ship which was estimated to be 1,000 tonnes of heavy oil.
Last week, the Mauritian prime minister stated, as quoted by the newspaper Le Mauricien, that out of the 4,180 tonnes of fuel that were on board the stricken vessel, almost 3,200 tonnes had been pumped out by rescuers at the scene.
Sputnik has gathered photos of other major oil spills from around the world.
