Jubilation as Moratorium on Ship to Ship Fuel Transfers Extended
By Lloyd Edwards

1. News

Celebrations went on well into the night as the South African Marine Safety Authority extended the moratorium of granting of new ship to ship fuel transfer licenses, until a comprehensive risk assessment has been carried out. This was a result of a legal letter drawn up by Kirsten Youens of All Rise Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice. A big thank you to Kirsten who did all this work pro bono. The client who brought the application was Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism. Well done on seeing this through. Plenty of work was done by our own eco warriors, Ronelle Friend and Michael Bellis. Without their extreme dedication in doing this unpaid work, we would be staring at another two companies spewing out their toxins into our beautiful Algoa Bay.

We have been asking for this risk assessment to be undertaken since 2019. All the media coverage, TV shows and the petition no doubt added impetus to SAMSA’s decision. The facts were so well spelt out that SAMSA had very little choice but to comply. Although media coverage and public opinion is important, the only way government institutions seem to take notice is via the legal route. Thank you to everyone who was involved . . . it is a great win for Algoa Bay. This is not the end, but only the beginning. There is still a long uphill battle on the cards.

Included in this post are some beautiful photos of a dolphin calf with its mother taken recently in Algoa Bay . . . just where this scourge of ship to ship fuel transfers is taking place. Toxins and heavy furnace oil spills released during these fuel transfers end up in the sea and work their way up through the different trophic levels (food chain). It all starts with the plant plankton which is consumed by the animal plankton and in turn the bait fish. This is then consumed by top predators like the African penguins, dolphins, whales, sharks and game fish. When dolphins feed their calves, like the ones shown in the attached images, these toxins are passed on in the breast milk. If this madness carries on, our beautiful “Bottlenose Dolphin Capital of the World” may be something of the past. It will have a huge effect on our Tourism Industry which generates R7 billion per annum and employs 45 000 people. Compare this to the paltry 54 jobs created by ship to ship fuel transfers and the money which vanishes into unseen bank accounts!

Click here for the latest update on this project.

This little fella is lucky to be alive. The evidence of a failed shark predation is clearly visible on its flank.

Note how the dolphins start exhaling through their blowholes before they break the surface.

We see schools of dolphins in schools of between 50 and 800 on nearly 100% of our marine eco cruises.

This image was taken with a Nikon D810 full frame. ISO 280, 70mm zoom, f/8 and 1/1250th second. I hand held the camera without looking through the viewfinder which would have been impossible. The calves are simply too fast!