The Clamour Grows

WAILS: Seismic testing hurts whales. Are you stupid? Photo Tim Stenton, Graphic Spike

As they say, they may have won a battle, but they haven't won the war. A massive nationwide protest against Shell takes place this Sunday at multiple locations around South Africa, and a new interdict lodged in South African courts will fire the next salvo at the hapless fossil fuel juggernaut.

Yesterday, live vessel tracking apps indicated that the seismic ship Amazon Warrior and four support vessels was steaming steadily at 5 kts northeast up the East Coast, which suggests that they have begun the survey, wasting little time after the judgment that was handed down earlier.

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In a judgment handed down this morning in the Makhanda High Court, Shell was given the go-ahead to proceed with its seismic survey after an urgent interdict filed by Kei Mouth Ski Boat Club, Border Deep Sea Angling Association, Greenpeace and environmental NGO Natural Justice failed. Back in 2014, the two clubs were "Interested and Affected Parties" when the initial exploration right was granted to Impact Africa Ltd and Shell PLC.

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The vessel has now started to cover the 6,000km2 area from 20km off the East Coast between Morgan's Bay and Port St Johns in water depths of 700m to 3000m dragging 48 air guns that will fire loud shock-waves at the sea floor every 10 seconds for up to five months. The interdict aimed to halt the process until a judicial review of Shell's environmental authorisation was finalised.

The ruling this morning is a blow to activists. "Given the paucity of information as to the likelihood of environmental harm, the balance of convenience favours Shell," said Judge Avinash Govindjee in his ruling, according to News24.

This first interdict, filed by Environmental law firm Cullinan and Associates, demanded that a coastal protection notice be issued by Minister Barbara Creecy and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. According to a key and voracious member of the opposition, Oceans Not Oil, Creecy's department is "keeping mum". I have heard it said that Creecy is a lacky of Gwede Mantashe - Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy.

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However, the oil and gas juggernaut must clear another hurdle in the form of a second interdict application by Amadiba leaders and fishermen from the Wild Coast. Human rights attorney Richard Spoor, yes the same guy from the notorious naked Twitter pic, told eNCA today that the communities, who hail from the coast between the Wild Coast Sun in the North and Kei Mouth in south, believe they will be impacted detrimentally by the exploration activities of Shell.

In an interview on eNCA, Spoor said the interdict aims to suspend the exploration activities of Shell until "such time that Shell is granted an environmental authoristation, which we say they do not have".

"Shell believes that it has a lawful authorisation. It got environmental management programme approval in 2013 and it was granted an exploration right. It seems to believe it is entitled on that basis that it can proceed. We say that they require an environmental authourisation granted not in terms of the MPRDA mining law, but under the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), and they just don't have that right and therefore their activities are unlawful, and won't be legal until they obtain that right. To get that right they need to engage in consulstative process with people who may be effected including people who depend on the sea for their livelihood," he said.

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Massive momentum is building up, with solidarity forming between numerous activists and lawyers and groupings across the cultural and geographic divide. In another wave of support, 24 of the top marine and cetacean scientists have come out guns blazing in

a letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, Mantashe and Creecy.

They present a powerful case, and irrefutable proof of the harm these surveys wreak on wildlife, akin to ripping a hole of death that tears through the depths like a depth charge shredding a nearby submarine, the damage lessening as it moves through the water.

Their premise is that: "We point out that much of this evidence, and a growing global opposition to this method of surveying (it has been stopped in some country’s Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ)), has only come to light after the granting of current permits, notwithstanding their questionable legal status".

Perhaps due to the precariousness of life living with Covid, and coming in the wake of Cop26, seldom has there been such a massive mobilisation of human beings to save part of the natural world.

(CLICK to hear what an air gun array blast sounds like under water)

WhatsApp groups have gathered some of the best minds in the conservation and environmental space, including scientists, activists, eco lawyers, Oceans Not Oil, Dear South Africa, Natural Justice, WAPFSA, The Green Connection, Amadiba Crisis Committee, Ocean Warriors Wild Coast, Sustaining the Wild Coast, Greenpeace, and WESSA to name a few.

An indigenous group from Nigeria are on board. A former Sea Shepherd activist with success against several oil companies, including Shell, to protect the Great Australian Bight is on board. People from all walks of life, and from the tiniest of NGOS are on board.

Huge things have been accomplished, notably the garnering of international attention. There have been pickets outside Shell in Holland, pickets in London by Fossil Free London and Greenpeace International have mobilised support. Successes include Express Petroleum refusing to stock Shell, the news that 35 petrol stations in the Eastern Cape have canned Shell. There have been protest on beaches, harbours, towns, and at Shell garages, Petroleum Agency SA (who act on the Government's behalf in dealing with exploration applications).

And there's a BIG ONE coming up this Sunday. See you there!

Damage to marine life
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233685851_A_Review_of_The_Effects_of_Seismic_Surveys_on_Marine_Mammals
https://www.nrdc.org/experts/new-science-seismic-blasting-devastates-oceans-zooplankton
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0195
https://www.saambr.org.za/proposed-seismic-surveys-off-the-wild-coast-some-facts/

Legal Action against Shell
https://www.news24.com/fin24/companies/industrial/environmental-organisations-file-urgent-court-application-to-block-shells-seismic-survey-20211130
https://naturaljustice.org/shells-seismic-survey-if-we-have-to-go-to-court-we-will/

How to voice objection
https://oceansnotoil.org/2021/11/08/how-to-voice-objection-against-shell-and-cgg/

Guard Ship to chase ships away
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/astra-g-worlds-first-purpose-built-seismographic-research-support-vessel/

Recap
https://oceansnotoil.org/2021/11/27/an-ocean-not-oil-movement-escalates/

The cost of Seismic Surveys in other places
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_QYr5ENarU

Support
https://www.wwf.org.za/our_news/news/?37522%2FIncompatible-developments-of-concern-on-Wild-Coast&fbclid=IwAR02MhY_n028mpI24U46fqOlTGH3EGCx-GLtFQtTmbZN8cbULzkq6rkW8x0
https://futurebeyondshell.org/