situation
Marianne Merten
Turbulent sea currents and unseasonably calm weather this week thwarted the transfer of the remaining 900 tons of oil from the sunken Treasure wreck and the dispersal of oil slicks from the Cape coast.
Salvage operators and conservationists face a catch-22 situation: while calm weather prevails oil slicks do not disperse and continue to threaten thousands of penguins and seabirds; if the weather changes as predicted on Sunday, rough seas will further delay the transfer of oil even if the slicks dissipate.
Several attempts to install the hot-tap equipment – an underwater hydraulic drill fitted with valves and caps to allow divers to install transfer pipes without further leaks – had to be abandoned in the strong surges created by South Atlantic sea swells.
The ore carrier has been lying in 50m of water near Melkbosstrand since it sank two weeks ago and small amounts of oil continue to leak from the hull.
“Mother Nature is in control,” says Smit Pentow Marine director Pim Zandee, adding one diver had been slightly injured during salvage operations when he was slammed against the wreck.
But there has been no let-up in the effort, with the help of hundreds of volunteers, to rescue tens of thousands of penguins and other seabirds at risk.
Between 5E000 and 10E000 oiled penguins are expected from Dassen Island on the West Coast by the weekend.
The Western Cape Nature Conservation Board has already taken more than 12E500 clean penguins off the island, which was fenced off last week to prevent contamination. Most birds are en route to Port Elizabeth to be released into the ocean to swim back.
Almost 4E000 birds have already been trucked to Port Elizabeth in cardboard boxes. It was decided to transport them on roads because of concerns that penguins could not tolerate the different air pressure in planes.
More than 21E000 penguins and almost 50 endangered bank cormorant adult birds and chicks are under treatment at facilities of the South African National Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds. The Table Bay station has been turned into a “pre-release centre”.
Taking care of the thousands of African penguins is no easy task: it takes around four tons of sardines to feed them each day. A donation of one ton of fish by the Cape Town-based Storm Model Agency was welcome, but further appeals for food, volunteers or money have been made.
Meanwhile, the progress of penguins Peter, Pamela and Percy, three of the birds already trucked to Port Elizabeth and released into the ocean there, can be viewed on the University of Cape Town (UCT) website, www.uct.ac.za/depts/adu/ or the UCT home page at www.uct.ac.za.
The penguins have been fitted with electronic transmitters.