Amid concerns around the continuing oil leaks should the wreck of the Seli 1 remain in Table Bay, the media reports that city officials confirmed on Friday last week that the national Transport Department had agreed to pay for the removal of the wreck.

Interestingly, this announcement was made exactly three years to day that the vessel ran aground on September 7, 2009. The estimated cost of the operation is R40 million and JP Smith, mayoral committee member for safety and security said that the money would be made available to the SA Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) to contract the salvage.

A tender process?

It was mentioned in the press a few weeks ago that Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries director-general, Langa Zita had been suspended for ‘administrative reasons’ and this week it was reported that Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson and Zita had ‘mutually agreed to part ways amicably.’ There has been mention of a golden handshake by the DA, but there is no definite confirmation of the amount of money that Zita will receive.

Tina Joemat-Pettersson was also widely criticised in the press this week generally for just NOT BEING THERE, as she once again failed to appear at the portfolio committee on agriculture, forestry and fisheries. This is after she also failed to appear at the last portfolio committee meeting three weeks ago. Her excuse for her absence this week, according to portfolio chairperson Lulu Johnson, was that she is unable to fly due to ‘some sickness of the ears.’

Needless to say, many committee members were extremely displeased by her failure to appear – yet again and there were even calls by some MPs to cancel the entire meeting.

Ultimately the meeting did continue without the minister – a situation which is unfortunately becoming all too familiar.

Despite the bulk of the oil being removed from the Seli 1 soon after it ran aground in September 2009, some oil remains trapped inside the fuel tanks.

This oil leaked into the news this week as oil began to pollute Dolphin Beach. Experts have been quoted in the media saying that this will continue to happen winter after winter until the wreck is removed or an alternate solution is found.

Obviously the major concern is the safety and well-being of the marine life in the area, as well as the many unhappy residents.

Media have been pursuing someone to blame and Dave Colly of the SA Maritime Safety Authority said that it was ultimately the responsibility of the Department of Transport. The city council has stated that the Department of Transport had asked the national Treasury for R40 million to fund the removal of the wreck.

Clean-up operations are underway, but unfortunately for some sealife, the damage is already done.

Once again we wait and see, but surely it is the WAITING that is the problem. Due to the fact that no one acted quickly to solve the problem of the Seli 1, a beautiful part of our coastline is being damaged and our marine life is suffering. How much longer do we have to wait?

Ironically, South Africa’s maritime policy developers also made the news this week as the Integrated Coastal Management Act of 2008 was shortlisted by the World Future Council for an international prize.

The coastal law was selected for addressing ‘the daunting challenge of promoting human well-being while maintaining ecological integrity’ and is, in essence, designed to govern how the coast is managed.

Thirty-one policies were submitted from 22 countries and only six were shortlisted. The results will be announced later this month at the UN headquarters in New York.

In other news – the two South Africans who recently returned to South Africa after being held captive by Somali pirates for 20 months are being evaluated by psychologists to determine whether they are fit to face their captives again.

The men who held the two captive were part of a group of 20 arrested by the Dutch navy in 2010 and Debbie Calitz and Bruno Pelizzari intend to travel to the Netherlands in October to testify in the case – if they are deemed psychologically prepared.

The Fisheries department is back in the news this week as two fisheries research cruises due to take place in August and September have been cancelled as the SA Navy has no staff qualified to take the Africana research vessel to sea.

Lionel Adendorf, spokesman for the fisheries branch of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said that the struggle to find suitably qualified, experienced candidates for senior positions on the Africana had ‘forced the department to readjust our important and tight schedule for different research cruises.’ He went further to say that Fisheries would rather readjust the survey schedule than jeopardise the project completely by appointing the wrong people.

Sources within the fishing industry say that although not ideal, it is not critical to miss these August and September cruises, but it is essential that the Africana goes to sea in October and November for the ‘small pelagic’ survey.

As to the ongoing investigation into corruption within the fisheries department; it is now officially in the hands of the SA police.

We wait with bated breath, but watch with interest the continued finger pointing – our invitation to the Minister for a structured debate remains acknowledged, but conveniently swept under the rug!

It has been quite a busy week in the maritime industry and various stories have made it into the press.

The Cubal, a 285 metre long LNG tanker, is at anchor in False Bay for repairs to its engine. The ship, designed to transport liquefied natural gas (LNG), is one of the most valuable visitors to anchor in our bay with a price tag of around $202 million.

According to reports, the vessel was given permission to anchor at False Bay by the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) and regional manager, Dave Colly said that it would not be a long stay as the engines required only minor repairs.

On the policing front, thanks to the efforts of officials of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) 22 suspects are to appear in courts in both Cape Town and Hermanus this week.

News of the most recent arrest, details four men being arrested for abalone poaching on Robben Island on Friday. DAFF spokesman, Lionel Adendorf described how the arrest turned violent and his team was forced to fire at the engines of the rubber duck used by the poachers who, in attempting to avoid arrest, ‘rammed’ the Fisheries Protection vessel. 416 units of abalone were found on the rubber duck.

By all accounts it would seem that policing our waters continues to be a challenging and dangerous task.

There is more discussion and unhappiness surrounding the quota system in the press this week as a group of women from Meermin Visserye seek the assistance of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to cancel an agreement with Compass Fishing Enterprises to fish on their behalf.

The women, who have a 15-year quota worth approximately R1.5 million to fish anchovies and pilchards, allege that they have not been able to capitalise on the full income generated by their quota due to issues with Ricky Donaggi, director of Compass Fishing, and his company; and have asked the department to withdraw all fishing permits issued to Compass Fishing to fish on their behalf.

Lionel Adendorf, spokesman for the Fisheries Department said that the department was committed to carrying out the wishes of the shareholders.

Let us hope that the real issues are addressed in this story and that the women can earn a living from the ocean in accordance with the quotas they control.

Finally some good news: South Africa has joined only a handful of countries, namely: Canada, Norway and Australia, in successfully integrating women into their submarine unit. Up until a few years ago any position aboard a submarine was regarded as ‘too dangerous and scary for women’, but now the SA Navy has successfully integrated 14 fully qualified women submariners: two chefs, one communicator, five mechanical engineers, artisans and a radio operator.

That’s a good story to end off women’s month on.

The ever controversial tender for the operation of patrol boats to protect South Africa’s marine resources is back in the press this week. With only a week to go before the release of the Public Protector’s report into alleged corruption relating to the tender, there is more mud being slung around in the public domain.

Secretary-General of the WCBBC, Mntuwekhaya Cishe, stated that the chamber had asked that the irregular tender originally awarded to Smit Amandla Marine, dating back to 2005, be included in the investigation.

To add to the controversy, according to Tina Joemat-Petersson’s spokeswoman, Palesa Mokomele, the Hawks and the Asset Forfeiture Unit are also conducting an investigation into corruption in the Fisheries branch.

Surely, as a group, all these players need to work together to weed out those who clearly do not have our country’s oceans interests at heart as quickly (and quietly) as possible?

Our navy is in trouble again facing an inquiry into the incident which caused the SAS Queen Modjadji to ‘nosedive’ onto the sea bed during a training exercise off the coast between Port Elizabeth and Durban – and may have to explain itself to Parliament.

Reports seem to suggest that Parliament is beginning to question whether the large amounts of funding that the navy receives are being spent wisely.

In other news – Greenpeace activist, Peter Wilcox, captains the new Rainbow Warrior III which is on a six-day stay in the Table Bay Harbour. The yacht, which is in the harbour for routine maintenance is being billed as the most environmentally friendly vessel ever built.

She is heading for the Indian Ocean where she will kick off a campaign against illegal fishing by means of research and documentation of illegal fishing activities in the area.

John Hare has once again raised some interesting questions this week with an article published in the Cape Times entitled: ‘Cape should be Africa’s corner cafe.’

In it he raises the question of why up to 80% of ships that pass the Cape each year do not stop? This despite the fact that maritime South Africa is in an extremely fortunate position with regard to geographical location, port facilities and expertise, communications, commercial and legal infrastructure etc, etc, etc.

He then goes on to give SAMSA credit for attempting to drive the maritime industry forward, but states that it is a huge task with many issues to overcome.

His general message is that all those in the maritime industry need to contribute to making our coast a ‘must-stop’ destination by supporting the efforts that SAMSA has made thus far, encouraging education in the maritime sphere and seeing how and where we can all assist in taking a giant step forward together.

Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Petersson is back in the news this week, accusing officials within her department of being corrupted by poaching syndicates. She stated that attempts were being made to ‘destabilise’ her department both internally and externally and also that ‘an overall cleaning-up operation of the department’ was taking place. The investigation which led to the discovery of the corruption initially focused on perlemoen poaching only, but is now also focusing on the allocation of quotas, permits, the transfer of fishing rights and the preferential treatment that certain businesses receive from the fisheries branch.

It would appear that our poor minister once again has her hands full. Perhaps if she had done a better job running her department thus far, she wouldn’t be dealing with this particular mess – amongst many others.

According to an article published in the Cape Times this week, it would appear that not only is the concept of male chivalry at sea a thing of the past, but it was a complete myth to begin with.

After a study of 18 major maritime disasters carried out by Mikael Elinder of Uppsala University in Stockholm, with the exception of the Titanic, where the captain ordered his crew to allow women and children to leave the sinking vessel first, there is no evidence to suggest that this is in any way the norm during a maritime disaster. It would appear that it is more a case of every man for himself.

The study analysed maritime disasters as far back as 1852 and found that in most cases more men than women and children survived and, even more alarming, was the fact that the crew themselves had the greatest survival rate.

Perhaps the world at large has been too critical of the poor captain of the stricken Costa Concordia for abandoning ship before anyone else? He was only doing what anyone else would do if their ship was going down – get off.

Or rather, perhaps this is just a sad reflection of our society as a whole; that everyone is indeed only looking out for number one.

The big news affecting the marine industry this week related to the MSC certification. Amid concerns that certification from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) would be lost, negotiations between the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the MSC seemed to have been resolved – at least for the following year – ensuring South African fishing companies a place in the lucrative European hake trawl fishing market. This was confirmed in a statement by both the government and the council’s programme manager, Martin Purves and reported widely in the media this week.

Shaheen Moolla, chief executive of Feike, however regards the development as merely “a band-aid over a festering wound.” It would appear that there is still a lot of work and negotiation to be done to ensure a positive and permanent resolution to this ongoing situation – and no doubt this particular issue will continue to make news in the months to come.

Professor John Hare, Professor of Shipping Law at the University of Cape Town has been extremely vocal in the press this week. Firstly expressing his displeasure at what he regards as various ministers snubbing the ‘sleeping giant’ that is the South African maritime industry and then publishing an open letter to the Hon Minister of Transport, voicing his concern about the danger that South Africa faces from a financial and environmental perspective should there be an oil spill along our coast line.

Professor Hare is a well respected figure in the maritime industry and let us hope that his opinions are respected and heeded by the powers that be. This industry needs more people who are willing to stick their necks out and say what needs to be said and, even more importantly, do what needs to be done – and perhaps the South African Maritime Industry Conference hosted by SAMSA last week is the catalyst that prompted the good professor to alert the media.

The beautiful SA Agulhas II made the news again as she set sail for the ice sheets of Antarctica and is expected to reach her destination on July 20.

The trip is primarily aimed at testing the new ships capabilities, particularly through the thick pack ice and also to test the new scientific and maritime equipment on board. These tests will be carried out by the team on board representing a number of universities and research institutions.

Ashley Johnson of the Department of Environmental Affairs and chief scientist on the voyage said that the ship had undergone some ice trials in the northern hemisphere, but only through ice that had already thinned. The testing would now be through the thicker Winter ice.

She added, ‘The old vessel was designed more to ferry people to the ice and the islands, but this one has much better laboratory facilities and instruments.’

We wish them a successful voyage and look forward to their safe return.