Mussel & Fish Farming in Langebaan Lagoon : Latest Update

The following letter by the group Save Langebaan Lagoon is the latest in the fight against the proposed “fish farms” in the Saldanha Bay harbour area:

Hi Everyone

Our fight against aquaculture development in the Langebaan Lagoon is only just starting.

During the month of March, we were kept busy with creating awareness regarding the proposed large scale Aquaculture Development Zone (ADZ) and the supporting, legally required Basic Assessment Report (BAR) which had been conducted by SRK Consulting, the environmental assessment practitioners, retained by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF). DAFF is the authority that is vigorously promoting the aquaculture development zone for Langebaan, under their Operation Phakisa Oceans Economy initiative.

Most of our time and energy during our start-up phase was focused therefore on getting as many I&APs registered and involved. We spent considerable time addressing all the aspects covered in the BAR, as well as the shortcomings of the BAR and drafted a strong objection to the assessment report, which included specialist/expert reports with contrary views to those contained in the BAR.

Next steps: The merits of our objection, as well as all other objections submitted, are currently under consideration together with the merits of the BAR. We will be notified of the outcome of such consideration within the next few weeks.

Current fires that we are fighting

1. Transnet Ports Authority Lease agreements

Many of you might be aware of the advert / notice placed in the Weslander by Transnet Ports Authority inviting commentary from interested and affected parties (I&APs) for commercial aquaculture water leases. These particular leases have been allocated to six different companies, totaling an area of 205 hectares. The first advert appeared on 30 March 2017, inviting comment submissions until 10 April 2017. We requested and have been granted an extension to 3 May 2017. Attached is a copy of their advert.

We would like to state that Transnet has been very cooperative and helpful with information and feedback. If anyone has any questions, comments or information regarding these leases / companies, please let us know via email at savelangebaanlagoon@gmail.com

Please note: Transnet only has the authority to grant the leases to farm fish in a particular site under their jurisdiction, for a prescribed period of time. However, before such a lease can become operational, an environmental authorisation (EA) needs to be granted. For an EA to be granted, an application needs to be made to the competent authority, either the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), or the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEADP) in the Western Cape government.

In terms of South Africa’s environmental governance framework, activities which may not commence without an EA are identified and listed. Thus, if the proposed aquaculture activity meets one or more such identified criteria, before an EA can be granted, an environmental impact assessment process has to be conducted by an environmental assessment practitioner (e.g. SRK, Ecosense). These mandatory legal requirements set out the time frames for this process, and very importantly, includes the terms of the public participation process. It is during this environmental impact assessment process that the timeous submission of your comments, objections, questions and feedback as I&APs are critical in ensuring that administrative decision-making happens from an informed, objective perspective i.e. not simply an uncritical rubber-stamping acceptance of the often deliberately biased views and omissions of the project applicants/proponents.

2. Ecosense & Molapong Aquaculture Project

On 16 March 2017 a notice was placed in the Weslander by Ecosense, an environmental assessment practitioner consultancy, inviting commentary on their BAR and a Draft Environmental Management Programme (EMPr), on behalf of Molapong, a division Viking Fishing, a large commercial fisheries operation. PLEASE NOTE that this is the same company that has the current 6 sea cages floating in the lagoon; this has been part of their test phase.

It is unclear to us at this juncture if the above BAR and the EMPr are for the same lease as the one for which Molapong was granted a long-term right to engage in marine aquaculture activities in Langebaan’s bays on 8th June 2016. Under such right, the applicant has been authorized to further on-grow rainbow trout, Atlantic salmon, brown trout, king salmon and Coho salmon in Saldanha Bay.

“We are investigating how they were granted this right almost a year ago but only invited public comment on 16 March 2017.”

Molapong propose to farm 28, 5 hectares of long lines for mussels and sea cages for exotic fin fish, in an area of 59 hectares for which they currently hold are a lease. Last Friday (21 April 2017) we submitted a hastily drafted letter of objection, as Ecosense did not grant our request for a deadline extension. We had two days in which to interrogate a 52 page BAR, an 82 page EMPr and numerous appendices. You can download both the BAR and the EMPr on https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0S5f5xTP1HHUlpUeFB3ZHlQZnc

We are currently drafting a list of queries and concerns to DAFF re the gaps in our knowledge concerning the entire scale of the ADZ planned, where all the sites are located, to whom have leases been granted thus far, how many more are planned, what public participation processes have been followed for each lease allocation, have any EAs been granted and if so, with whose authorisation, are standardised best practice monitoring and compliance mechanisms in place etc. Once we have feedback on these issues, we will call another public meeting with all I&APs.

If you have not yet registered with us, or know of other potential I&APs, please email us your details.

Please keep vigilant w.r.t. any notifications/communication re aquaculture developments in the Saldanha Bay/Langebaan area. We welcome and encourage your comments, thoughts and information – email us and follow updates on our facebook page.

Thank you.

“ Dum Spiro Spero / While I breathe, I hope “