SA fishing communities fear floating powerships will scare fish away
JOHANNESBURG - Representatives of some small-scale fishing communities say they are worried about the impact that floating powerships will have on scarce fish stocks along SA’s coast.
This comes after the environmental assessors for Karpowership SA found that a project to produce electricity on gas-fuelled powerships moored at the ports of Saldanha Bay, Richards Bay, and Ngqura could go ahead.
Separate impact reports were produced for each of the three sites. The reports ran to well over 1, 000 pages.
The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment now has about eight weeks to study the impact assessments and grant or refuse authorisation for the multi-billion-rand project.
While environmental groups have criticised the project, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has said the project will help cut down on load shedding.
“The presence of these ships, off our coast, will have a real impact in scaring off the fish in the area, and we fishers will be the ones going hungry,” said Carmelita Mostert of Saldanha Coastal Links, in a statement.
Khalid Mather, an environmental activist from KwaZulu-Natal, said few of the fishing communities along the province’s coastline had been consulted.
“They are the ones who will suffer from the effects of the added pollution and other negative environmental impacts these vessels pose,” he said.
Karpowership SA’s proposal is part of a department of energy initiative to fast-track new, independent power production.
The group, which is part of Turkey’s Karadeniz Energy Group, has been named a preferred bidder in the department’s Risk Mitigation IPP Procurement Programme.
It has bid to moor a total of five powerships and three gas support vessels, known as floating storage re- gasification units, at the ports of Saldanha Bay, Richards Bay, and Ngqura. The vessels will produce a total of 1 220 MW of power from liquefied natural gas. – FIN24.