New seismic survey on the cards for Western Cape shores

Posted by Anita Froneman on 12 January 2022

Shortly after a lengthy process that ended in a court order to halt Shell’s seismic survey on the Wild Coast, a similar project seems to emerge.

An Australian vessel called the Seismic Searcher is reportedly scheduled to perform 2D and 3D seismic surveys on the Western Cape coast in January. These will run from the Namibian border until Cape Agulhas, according to Vuma Earth, which has launched a petition to stop the surveys from taking place.

Gilbert Martin, founder of activist group We are South Africans (Wasa), told The Citizen that this new survey would have gone ahead undetected had one of its members not sent him the Mariners notice, because ‘there was not one single article anywhere on the global internet about this’.

‘A Reconnaissance Permit in terms of Section 74 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (No. 28 of 2002) by the Petroleum Agency of South on 9th November 2021 was granted with an effective date of 6 December 2021. The company also claims to have included a formal 30-day public review and comment period, none of which we can find or a single news article related to this,’ the petition reads.

‘The noise generated [by seismic surveys] can reach 250 decibels as the sound waves generated by the blast penetrate the seabed. In comparison, the loudest whale noises range between 140 and 190 decibels,’ it continues.

‘This sound is proven in multiple peer-reviewed research papers to disturb, scare and alter marine life such as separating whales and their calves. This affects the endangered African Penguin, two subspecies of Blue Whales, the Antarctic Blue Whale and the Pygmy Blue Whale, the protected Southern Right Whales, Bryde’s Whales, Loggerhead Sea Turtles, Orcas and multiple Shark species all found along the Western Cape coast, the whale pods called some of the largest pods on Earth.’

According to Daily Maverick, the Academy of Sciences of South Africa has called on the government to completely stop and find an alternative to seismic surveys and blasting. The authors of the advisory statement said the government should ‘swiftly reform marine protection legislation by revoking the exclusive power of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) to issue oil and gas exploration permits’.

‘…Ministers make unilateral decisions and these decisions do not involve the South African people in decision making, there is no transparent public participation process,’ Martin added. ‘We are all saying that we have had enough of this attack on our collective futures.’

Picture: Chris Daly

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