Earlier this month we were given the opportunity to debate whether the hijacking and hostage drama onboard a Taiwanese fishing vessel in the port of Cape Town was an act of mutiny or piracy. The fact is it gave the South African authorities the opportunity to exercise their skills in dealing with a high-risk situation. Given the trend of a southward movement of piracy incidents, the timing is probably spot-on.
Interestingly, Somali locals are appearing to be growing increasingly antagonistic towards the pirate cells which have become so established over the past year. It is believed that the more “experienced” pirates are now rethinking their industry and the exponential growth in pirate numbers is likely to become self-limiting as local attitudes towards the trade worsen. Although pirate revenue is redistributed locally, the lifestyle has brought an increase in localised violence, prostitution and alcohol consumption, all ills which are unpalatable in religious circles.

Some might have thought pigs might fly should Jacob Zuma be elected the next President of South Africa. But when the National Prosecuting Authority dropped all charges against the ANC leader after years of court action, the writing was on the wall. Shortly afterwards the world heard that pigs (swine) flew (influenze virus H1N1) could become a population threat. So effective has the media been at its job that if you haven’t bought shares in medical companies supplying personal respiratory masks, thermometers and the like, then you will have lost out. Whilst our ports and terminals closed for Election Day on 22 April, other countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, India and Qatar are scaring off vessels with warnings about how they are dealing with the dreaded virus.

A close call was that of a cape sized bulk carrier, Star Beater, which caused some alarm to Llundudno residents who reported that she was too close to the shoreline. It turned out that the ship which had anchored three miles out to sea, had engine problems and under the watchful eye of the SMIT Amandla tug monitoring the situation, it was able to get going and proceed to Number I Anchorage and from there to Cape Town’s Eastern Mole.

Concern for our future planet was highlighted when on Saturday, 28 March 2009, at 20:30, millions of people worldwide switched off their lights as part of Earth Hour 2009, an event led by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). More than 1000 cities agreed to take part, including, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. We hope you gave your support.

The environment is high on the agenda of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) which has found that an estimated 10 billion tonnes of ballast water is being carried around the world every year. Whilst the issue of ballast water contamination is nothing new, this is nevertheless a serious environmental threat as plant and animal life is introduced into ecosystems which are unable to deal with the invasions.
South Africa is not immune. Recent scientific work has revealed the numbers of alien species in South Africa’s coastal waters to be dramatically higher than previously thought.
There is some progress. The IMO has instigated the formation of a Global Industry Alliance to tackle this challenge, consisting of the IMO, the United Nations Development Programme, the Global Environmental Facility and four major private maritime companies, APL, BP Shipping, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering and Vela Marine International. And our Department of Environmental Affairs is also doing its part and has published a second draft for public comment of its alien and invasive species regulations.
To conclude, we congratulate two shipping lines and a maritime electronics specialist on achieving milestones worth mentioning: MOL for its 125th year anniversary in business; Safmarine which notches up its 10th anniversary as a member of the A.P. Moller - Maersk Group in June; and Radio Holland and Pertec, which recently merged operations and celebrated Radio Holland having been 25 years in South Africa in March.
 

Editor

Cover Story

SMIT Amandla Marine’s Pentow Skua went into dry-dock in East London in April, undergoing mandatory dry-docking and scheduled maintenance work with a team of service providers, shore based support personnel and Master, Officers and Crew working around the clock to ensure that the vessel could recommence work for Client PetroSA as soon as possible. In the interim, the Pentow Salvor was on site at the E-BT Field ensuring no interruption to PetroSA operations. SMIT Amandla Marine is a specialist marine services provider, rated as a Level Four BBBEE contributor. SMIT Amandla Marine’s employees own 12% of the company.