- Notification Of Review Of Environmental Risk Assessment & Management Plan
We received the following notice from Donavan Henning at Nemai Consulting: “The Port of Ngqura is located within Algoa Bay, in the Eastern Cape. There has been a significant increase in the marine traffic in Algoa Bay and the Transnet National Ports Authority SOC Ltd (TNPA) and South African Marine Safety Authority (SAMSA) have received various applications from companies to undertake Ship-to-Ship (STS) transfer and bunkering offshore and within the Port Breakwaters. As a result, TNPA appointed PRDW Consulting Port and Coastal Engineers to undertake the Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) Offshore Bunkering and STS Transfer Study.
This serves as notification of the review of the draft Environmental Risk Assessment and Management Plan that was compiled as part of the abovementioned Study. This report will be made available to stakeholders to review from 30 November 2023 until 22 January 2024.
The report can be downloaded from the following website: https://nemai.co.za/downloads/.
At this stage the main concerns from the guardians of Algoa Bay are:
- Allowing bunkering at Anchorage 2: Anchorage 2 should be closed to bunkering totally. Impact on fish and penguins from noise is too great to be allowed to continue. The noise study indicates that noise can have a negative impact on penguins and fish. We have nearly lost the colony of penguins at St Croix. To give the penguins and marine life the best chance of recovery. Currently no fishing is allowed in this area why should bunkering continue? Anchorage 2 should thus be closed for bunkering.
- Socio-economic study does not provide the info we wanted: The socio-economic study fails to indicate what benefits if any the AB community specific and Gqeberha as a whole have by allowing bunkering in the bay. We take the risks.. are there any benefits? We want to see where the money is going from bunkering… who benefits, who are the shareholders of bunkering companies, how much money comes into the bay, why they were not paying all their taxes. We want this information to be contained in the socio-economic study.
There are many more concerns which will be highlighted in due course.
Bottom line… STS (ship to ship) bunkering should never have been allowed in the bay!
