- Judge rejects Standing Rock request to block Dakota Access pipeline drilling
A Liberian flagged cargo vessel identified as APL Austria has suffered a major fire offshore South Africa, the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) said on Monday.
The fire broke out on Sunday afternoon while the containership was 30 nautical miles South-West of Cape St Francis – some 50-70 kilometers west of the city of Port Elizabeth.
Having been informed of the fire, the SAMSA Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) located in Cape Town set in motion rescue services as the vessel’s crew was working to put out the blaze, Captain Daron Burgess, a Principal Officer for SAMSA’s Southern region is quoted by SAMSA as saying.
According to Captain Burgess, when alerting the MRCC, the crew of the vessel had been under the impression that the fire was on the vessel’s No.3 cargo hold only to be later established as having broke out in its No.4 cargo hold.
“The vessel was instructed to proceed to Algoa Bay anchorage and she arrived at the anchorage area at 02:00h this morning, Monday 13 February 2017. There are several containers containing hazardous cargo on deck above No.4 cargo hold, but fortunately none of them were on fire,” said Capt Burgess.
“Lots of black smoke was emanating from the vessel. The weather conditions have been favourable since the incident occurred, with a light South-Easterly wind,” he added.
As informed, the 2007-built ship heaved anchor at about 05:00h this morning and was instructed to proceed further out in the bay to clear the other vessels at the anchorage area. The Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) tugs continued with boundary cooling during the morning hours. There were no injuries reported.
“After the fire was relatively under control, arrangements were made to take the vessel into the Port of Ngqura with the Metro Fire Fighters on standby and to deal with the situation upon arrival alongside. The vessel entered the Port of Ngqura at approximately 10:00h this morning,” Capt Burgess further informed.
The ship is now docked at Ngqura harbour, some 30km east of Port Elizabeth.
The cause of the major blaze on board the APL Austria is yet to be determined, as an investigation is scheduled to be launched once the fire is extinguished.
The APL Austria, owned by Marugame Kisen Kaisha from Japan, is about 280 meters in length overall, featuring a beam of about 40m and a deadweight of some 72, 807t.
In the meantime, a federal judge has rejected a request from indigenous tribes to block drilling of the Dakota Access pipeline, the latest blow to the Standing Rock Sioux after Donald Trump fast-tracked final permits for the last phase of construction.
The Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes challenged the president’s decision last week to speed approvals for the last stretch of the $3.7bn pipeline under the Missouri river in North Dakota. But US district James Boasberg sided with the pipeline corporation at a Washington DC hearing on Monday afternoon and ruled to allow continued construction.
At Standing Rock – where activists known as water protectors have been camping since last spring – indigenous people said the court decision would not discourage them from continuing to fight the project on the ground.
“I don’t think this will stop the movement,” said Paulino Mejia, a 21-year-old who is Ch’orti’ Maya and returned to Standing Rock on Friday. “If anything, it might even make it stronger. I’m going to stay here indefinitely.”
In his first week in office, Trump reversed the Obama administration’s denial of the oil corporation’s key permit, ending a short victory for the tribe and thousands of supporters across the globe who argue that the pipeline could contaminate drinking water and destroy sacred grounds.
The motion from the Cheyenne River tribe, which is part of the Great Sioux Nation, requested a temporary restraining order to halt construction on religious grounds.
The tribe’s lawyers argued that Lake Oahe, where the pipeline drilling is crossing, is made of sacred water that is integral to Cheyenne rituals: “The Lakota people believe that the pipeline correlates with a terrible Black Snake prophesied to come into the Lakota homeland and cause destruction. The Lakota believe that the very existence of the Black Snake under their sacred waters in Lake Oahe will unbalance and desecrate the water.”
Attorneys for the pipeline corporation said in court filings that the company “has the greatest respect for the religious beliefs and traditions of Cheyenne River” but that a restraining order is “not necessary to protect the exercise of those beliefs or preserve those traditions”.
“Cheyenne River is out of time to run this play,” the lawyers added.
Dewey Looking Horse, a 26-year-old Cheyenne River member out at the camps on Monday, said it was upsetting to see the drilling resume last week but that water protectors were committed to staying. “They still want to antagonize Mother Earth.” An oil spill, he added, was inevitable: “It’s going to break sooner or later.”
SJ, a 20-year-old Ojibway activist who has been at Standing Rock since October, said she was not surprised by the ruling. “It’s not like I expected them to be on my side. They never have been on my side.”
World Maritime News with additional report from Guardian