Thursday, February 9, 2017 - 09:00
The controversy surrounding the Ryazanovka, a Russian flagged vessel in the Walvis Bay harbour that was suspected of being designated for the capture of live sea mammals has come to an end with the vessel being scrapped.
The proposal by Beijing Ruier Animal Breeding and Promoting Company and Welwitschia Aquatic and Wildlife Scientific Research to the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources for the capture of live sea mammals, penguins and seals for the aquarium trade in the Far East came from Chinese millionaire Jeff Huang through his company Sun Investments. Up until a week ago, the controversial vessel was closely watched by a concerned environmental group in Walvis Bay. Since its arrival in Namibian waters almost a year ago the vessel had the electronic tracking gear on board switched off and could only be tracked by land and ship-based radar. This raised suspicions that the Ryazanovka was one of the vessels that escaped a large-scale hunt for and confiscation of illegal fishing vessels in South African waters in the first half of last year.
Several Chinese flagged vessels fishing illegally in South African waters were arrested during the operation. Some of these vessels also had their tracking gear switched off or tweaked to show their positions elsewhere in the world’s oceans. One vessel showed that it was in the middle of Mexico City when it was captured by South African authorities in the Atlantic Ocean off the West Coast. News that the Ryazanovka will be scrapped was welcomed with open arms by the various environmental concern groups. Members of the environmental groups established from Namport that the Russian owners of the vessel have made the decision to scrap the vessel. The cost estimate to have the Ryazanovka repaired for seaworthiness and the classification society were deemed too expensive.
It also came to light that the Russian Embassy in Windhoek was concerned about the negative publicity and recently visited the vessel and the Captain. The official announcement to scrap the ship came after the high-profile visit from the diplomatic mission to Walvis Bay.This week the vessel moved from its anchorage in the bay to a berth in the fishing harbour where a local scrap metal dealer has already started dismantling it. Acting senior commercial manager at Namport, Elias Mwenyo, said the vessel came to Walvis Bay for repairs, and has been at anchorage for the past four months waiting for an opening to go on the dry docks for repairs.
Mwenyo said the vessel’s documents which allowed it to come for repairs have since expired and need to be renewed by the Classification Society before repairs could be done.