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.

Greeted by a flotilla of yachts and showered by sea spray by two tugboats, the Mediterranean Shipping Company’s MSC Sola docked in Durban’s harbour yesterday. She made news headlines as the largest container ship to ever visit a South African port with a gross tonnage of 131 771 tons and carrying capacity of up to 11 660 containers. Prior to Transnet’s 2010 project to widen and deepen the entrance to the Durban harbour, the vessel would have been unable to enter.

The depth of the water at the Durban Container Terminal is still a problem, but Karl Socikwa, Transnet Port Terminals chief executive was reported as saying that the depth issue would be remedied, “We are optimistic that our planned investments into port infrastructure over the next few years will offer mega-ships like these the prospect of making more regular calls to South Africa.”

Of course there’s been much in the media over the last few months about Transnet’s investment strategy and it would seem that Transnet are stepping up and putting their money where their mouth is.

Plettenberg Bay was in the news this week. After awarding a tender for the development of a small boat harbour in the Pisang River and the building of multi-storey buildings on the foreshore of the coastal town of Plettenberg Bay 10 years ago, the first round of environmental impact assessments have begun and residents are up in arms.

Robbie Robinson, a retired SA National Parks CEO and local resident says that he feels that the area will lose it’s aesthetic value if the the development goes ahead.

As the planned development has taken 10 years to get this far, it would seem that local residents have a long wait and plenty of time to argue until anything concrete actually takes place.

Giving the maritime industry some favourable headlines this week, the polar supply and research ship the SA Agulhas has been relaunched as a dedicated training ship by the South African Maritime Safety Authority. SABC’s morning live team got there early and spent the morning interviewing cadets, ministers and SAMSA members before watching the vessel leave the port.

The ceremony to mark it’s departure took place on Thurday morning and coincided with an impressive SAMSA-led conference being held in Cape Town this week.

The ship will sail along the East coast with 33 cadets and three training officers on board and will return to Cape Town on August 6.

The ship is replaced by the SA Agulhas II, but what a fantastic way to create a buzz and enthusiasm around maritime training in both the youth and the industry which these cadets will hopefully one day be part of. Congratulations SAMSA.

The Seli 1 is back in the news this week. After lying just off Blouberg for nearly three years, while authorities try to determine who should foot the bill for its removal, it has now been determined that the wreck is eroding the beach and threatening council infrastructure. The wreck, abandoned by its owners shortly after running aground in September 2009, has already cost the public about R24 million and now the hidden costs are starting to mount.

According to reports, all the authorities involved agree that the wreck must be removed, but no one has been able to come up with the money as yet.

The city council met with the Department of Transport, as well as other government departments, two months ago to decide the fate of the wreck. Councillor JP Smith, mayco member for safety and security, said that the meeting had been a positive one and that an application would be made to the treasury to supply the funding for its removal. Other bodies, such as Transnet, Environmental Affairs and the Ports Authority, would also be asked to contribute funding.

The city, who has also volunteered to contribute to the cause, is now awaiting feedback from the Department of Transport.

Clearly, this has been, and looks likely to continue to be, and extremely lengthy process.

Another vessel in distress in our waters …. the Cidade de Paraty also hit the headlines this week and has been given permission to be towed into False Bay after developing trouble with its generators about 45 miles offshore last week.

Dave Main of Smit Salvors was quoted in the media saying that it was unclear as to how long the repairs to the generator would take, but it would seem that it is once again SAMSA and Smit to the rescue.

In other news, a R108 million upgrade for 12 of our local harbours is on the cards, but first those responsible for the abandoned sunken vessels can expect legal action from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF).

The 12 harbours to be upgraded or rehabilitated are: Hout Bay, Kalk Bay, Gordon’s Bay, Gansbaai, Arniston, Stillbaai, Saldanha Bay, St Helena Bay, Laaiplek, Lamberts Bay, Yzerfontein and Hawston. ‘The construction periods for these contracts range from six months to three years,’ said public works spokesman Thami Mchunu to the media.

Other DAFF news making the papers relates to the decision to hire diving companies to recover about 31.5 tons of perlemoen a year in order to conduct a three year research programme. The research is aimed at gathering information on the distribution and size of stocks, as well as the possibility of viable future perlemoen harvests.

They had better act quickly as there will soon be nothing left to research – thanks to our ever busy poachers.