The MV Ultra Galaxy beached on its side in a remote area of the West Coast in early July during a severe storm. It broke apart at the weekend, battered by more stormy seas, causing an oil spillage.
The fertiliser cargo aboard the ship has dissolved into the ocean, with its white carrier bags washing ashore on nearby beaches.
Before the vessel broke apart, several lube oil drums and eight tonnes of marine gas oil were removed from it.
A steel hatch cover on a beach near where the Ultra Galaxy went aground off the West Coast. Salvage personnel were on site to collect debris. (Photos: Samsa)
The spokesperson for the South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa), Tebogo Ramatjie, said their focus was now on preventing the remainder of the fuel from spilling into the sea and then safely removing the wreck.
“That requires planning because now we are working with a vessel that broke apart on Friday. It changes a lot of things. We are going to have to sit down and plan again about how to then remove [the wreck]. We need to remove the fuel as safely as possible and as quickly as possible, and then eventually remove the wreck from the beach,” he said.
Samsa said attempts were being made to contain the spill while cleaning operations continued.
“At one stage, 6.8m swells struck the wreck every 15 seconds, and the massive force of this constant battering caused the accommodation [section] to first break off, which then led to a number of larger cracks on the hull, forward of the accommodation,” Samsa said in a statement.
An oil spill contingency plan was activated, with as many as 125 people from local communities on the West Coast enlisted in the mop-up phase. (Photo: Samsa)
Samsa has activated its oil spill contingency plan for the West Coast zone, which aims to prevent pollution from occurring, minimise the extent of any pollution, and mitigate the effects of that pollution.
The situation and challenges
Ramatjie said ongoing bad weather had prevented Samsa from assessing the extent of the damage and the oil spill.
“The whole thing is challenging, but we are doing our best to make sure that it doesn’t become a disaster… Ideally, you do not want oil that is supposed to be inside a ship to touch any form of land or water,” Ramatjie said.
He said their primary focus was to ensure that the oil spill caused no permanent damage to the surrounding environment and wildlife.
“We are able to say today that the seepage of the oil has actually stopped. They [salvage teams] can … monitor those kinds of things. We are continuing to actively monitor the situation to ensure that it doesn’t escalate. If it escalates, we are there and we are ready to jump in.
“The cargo was swept off to sea and dissolved. We’ve been recovering the bags that it was contained in,” Ramatjie said. The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has implemented an environmental monitoring programme to this end.
White bags washed ashore at nearby beaches that had contained fertiliser the cargo the ship was carrying. All the cargo has been dissolved in the ocean. (Photo: Samsa)
Ramatjie said they would assess the situation over the next few days. “We will keep the public informed about what’s going on there, but at the moment, we do not have any report of marine life being affected,” he said.
A total of 125 people from local communities were enlisted in the mop-up phase, while salvage teams, the West Coast District Municipality and the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob) have also been called in.
Nicky Stander, the head of conservation at Sanccob, said a response team would be deployed early on Tuesday and would establish a temporary stabilisation facility in Lambert’s Bay, some 36km from the spill site.
“The spill site is isolated and … any affected seabirds will be captured and transferred to the facility in Lambert’s Bay for an initial assessment and stabilisation. Thereafter, the birds will be transferred to Sanccob’s seabird hospital for longer-term care,” she said.
To date, there have been no reports of oiled seabirds or any other wildlife, but Stander said there were concerns about bird species in the area with high conservation status, including the Cape cormorant, Cape gannet and African penguin.
An oil spill contingency plan was activated, with as many as 125 people from local communities on the West Coast enlisted in the mop-up phase. (Photo: Samsa)
She said management authorities were monitoring the area for any affected wildlife and that Sanccob continued to work closely with the relevant authorities, ready to receive any affected seabirds.
“These oil spills remain an ongoing concern. We know that during winter months, the weather hampers salvage efforts and the stormy weather affects the structural integrity of the vessel. Unfortunately, we also know that seabirds are the most likely taxa to become oiled due to their foraging behaviour at sea, making them especially vulnerable,” she said.
Coastal oil spill contingency plan
The coastal oil spill contingency plan for the West Coast covers the area from the Orange River in the north to just north of Elands Bay in the south, along the Atlantic seaboard of the Northern and Western Cape.
According to the plan, the priorities in this zone are the rock lobster fishing grounds and the West Coast trawling grounds for pelagic and demersal fish.
Islands supporting threatened species of seabirds such as penguins, gannets and cormorants are also a priority in this area.
Previous major oil spills in or close to the West Coast Zone
In 2000, an iron ore ship named Treasure sank in Table Bay, about 20km north of the African penguin colony on Robben Island and about 40km south of the colony on Dassen Island; 1,300 tonnes of heavy fuel oil were released, resulting in a major beach clean-up operation, with 19,000 oiled penguins and 19,500 penguins relocated.
This was one of several incidents highlighted in the coastal oil spill contingency plan for the West Coast zone.
Ramatjie said there would be a “huge investigation” into what happened and what could have been done to prevent it from happening. DM
Daily Maverick
www.dailymaverick.co.za
