Maritime Matters

The leader of the Green Party, Judith Sole, is back in the news this week with her third attempt to stop the fishing of West Coast rock lobster off the shores of the Western Cape with immediate effect. She has failed twice due to not properly following the letter of the law. According to Shaheen Moolla, managing director of Feike, her cause is a just one, but she has simply gone about things the wrong way. He feels that success lies not in stopping the fishing of West Coast rock lobster altogether, which would result in the loss of thousands of jobs, but rather on focusing on Minister Joemat-Pettersson’s interference in the total allowable catch process.

It would seem that Sole does have support for her cause, but persists in pursuing legal action without legal assistance. This is ultimately a waste of our busy courts’ time. Get a legal team, get legal advice and bring about permanent change in a way that is positive for everyone involved.

The big ‘green’ maritime news of the week is the declaring of Prince Edward and Marion Islands as marine protected areas. The announcement was made earlier this week by Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa. The two sub-Antarctic islands are about 2,000km south of Cape Town and are regarded as a ‘global biodiversity hotspot.’ Declaring them a marine protected area means that the islands will have a 12 nautical mile zone in which no fishing will be allowed. The aim is to preserve the unique island ecosystems and to help endangered populations recover.

Although this is great news for the area surrounding these islands, it is a sad state of affairs when our oceans are abused to the point that we have to officially declare protected areas in a bid to slow down their degradation.

The Queen Mary 2 gracefully sailed into the harbour and docked at Cape Town this week. She is on her way to Southampton to complete a 109-day around-the-world-cruise. She has only one three-day stop on her journey and cruise passengers chose Cape Town as their number one stop over choice.

The big maritime news of the week is the official launch of the Global Ocean Commission which held its inaugural meeting in Cape Town.

The commission, which is co-chaired by Trevor Manuel, is made up of a group of independent leaders from various countries. Their aim is to come up with a blueprint to stop the destruction of the world’s oceans and restore them to their full health; and they have given themselves a period of only 15 months to accomplish this.

This is a group of dedicated, like-minded and motivated individuals who want to see change and intend to set their experienced minds to work to develop a plan of action. We look forward to seeing that plan and, more importantly, that action.

The Agulhas II was called to action this week as it was sent out on a rescue mission.

Nompilo Radebe, an ornithologist contracted to the Department of Environment’s Oceans and Coast branch had to be evacuated from the Marion Island research station after falling ill. No other vessels were available to complete the mission at such short notice.

Radebe is now recovering in a Cape Town hospital.

MSC Cruises is in the news this week after an announcement made by their chief operating officer, Neil Palomba, last year has come to fruition. For the first time, MSC Cruises is offering South Africans the chance to apply for jobs aboard its fleet of 12 ships and experience not only the chance of gaining a career at sea, but also receiving training in their chosen field.

In this way MSC hopes to make a valuable contribution to both job creation as well as skills development.