Navy under fire for detonations

Detonations described as negligent

SOUTH AFRICA: The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) has described the decisions by the South African Navy to detonate munitions close to the Boulders Beach penguin colony as short-sighted, irresponsible, and negligent.

Addressing the Parliamentary Committee on Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment earlier this month, Patrick Dowling, Head: Education, WESSA told representatives that recent detonations by the South African Navy (SAN) in Simon’s Town had done more harm than good and argued that SAN should postpone future detonations.

Dowling added that the actions are “environmentally disastrous” and could be proved to be illegal; and noted that concerns voiced by NGOs, marine scientists and environmentalists appear to have been ignored.

Describing the responses from both SAN and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) as “inadequate”, Dowling asserted that military exercises and explosive tests could be undertaken anywhere and should not impact on the penguin colony which is an important tourism destination.

“Such exercises should be moved further offshore, preferably outside of False Bay,” he said.

Although admitting that there was currently no observable impact on the penguins, Dowling contests that one could not predict the long-term effects. He drew attention to a study conducted in Gqeberha that had found that shipping noise was enough to contribute to huge die-backs in animals such as African penguins

The committee’s ensuing discussion sought to clarify whether the monitoring activities being undertaken by SANParks as well as the Department of Defence (DoD) had yielded any substantive feedback. Questions as to whether the detonations were being funded by other countries were also raised; as well as the impact of sound pollution on residents of the town.

Further feedback from the DoD as well as DFFE has been requested.

PHOTO: Sourced from South African Navy’s website.