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South African maritime authorities said the country experienced an unprecedented increase in maritime casualties since March, more so than any other previous year during the same period.
The South African Maritime Safety Authority said the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre conducted 59 medical evacuations, a 150% increase over the same period last year.
“At the same time, SAMSA responded to two near groundings, 1 abandoned vessel, 1 container ship fire, 1 fishing vessel grounding and the infamous attempted murder of two stowaways.”
SAMSA said this once more highlights the urgent need for South Africa to have a modern multi-resourced Maritime Rescue Response and Monitoring capability to respond to any type of emergency and pollution incident along the South African coast.
The latest mission by maritime authorities involves attempts to prevent the 160 000 ton bulk carrier, Yuan Hua Hu, from running aground off Port St Johns on the Wild Coast.
SAMSA said that the tug, Pacific Dolphin, had connected a line to the vessel, and with the tug Siyanda, still in attendance, will be towing the bulk carrier to Durban.
“It is planned for the tow to proceed to between 10 and 20 nautical miles offshore. The weather is not expected to influence the tow and the estimated time of arrival for the tanker should be on Wednesday.”
Meanwhile, another vessel, SA Amandla, had been deployed to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to tow the abandoned fishing vessel, Kostar, back to Cape Town.
The ship’s crew had transferred to another vessel after the Kostar suffered a rudder and mechanical failure 2 200 nautical miles south West of Cape Town.
