By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Protesters in Muizenberg, Cape Town call for Shell’s seismic survey on the Wild Coast to be stopped. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks.
The Grahamstown High Court in Makhanda on Tuesday granted an interdict against Shell’s seismic survey along the Wild Coast
This a second application made in the same court to stop oil multinational Shell’s seismic survey along South Africa’s Wild Coast.
Wild Coast communities lodged an application for an urgent interdict against Shell’s exploration. The communities are represented by the Legal Resources Centre and Richard Spoor Attorneys and are joined by two civil society organisations that work in the area.
Shell has started a seismic survey off the coast between Morgans Bay and Port St Johns, which involves using airguns to send pulses of sound into water. The information collected from the sound waves bouncing back from the ocean floor will be used by scientists to determine or map out the presence of oil or gas reserves.
Concerned parties worry that the seismic survey will interfere with marine life. Many marine animals use sound to navigate, detect food, find mates or avoid predators. Seismic surveys have been shown to damage tissue in marine mammals, cause temporary hearing loss and stress in animals.
In his judgement, Judge Gerald Bloem stated that, Shell, “despite the massive body of expert evidence on the threat to harm to marine life” did not provide any evidence to neutralise the representations made by the applicants.
The applicants against Shell include small-scale fishers from the Amadiba, Cwebe, Hobeni, Port Saint Johns and Kei Mouth communities. According to the Legal Resources Centre, Shell consulted stakeholders in the commercial and recreational fishing sectors, but ignored small-scale fishing communities.
Bloem further stated that the evidence presented established that “there is real threat that the marine life would be irreparably harmed by the seismic survey.”
“In my view, the expert evidence established that there is reasonable apprehension of real harm to marine life.”
Bloem also found that Shell’s attempts to notify local communities of its planned exploration were “inadequate” and that its consultation process with affected communities was “substantially flawed”.
“In all the circumstances, it seems to me that the exploration right, which was awarded on the basis of a substantially flawed consultation process, is thus unlawful and invalid,” the ruling read.
The court ordered Shell and Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, to pay the applicants’ legal costs.