Dirty livestock carriers in Australian ports

Update: #comment-1487">Federal Court bans polluting live export death ships from Australian waters.

Originally published 23 Feb 09.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is responsible for ensuring that all ships in Australian ports comply with s 6.6 of Appendix 4 of Marine Orders Pt 43, which required an effluent treatment plant or holding tank to be part of the vessel. In September 2008, AMSA issued orders under that section to prevent the 28 year old converted car transporter "Al Messilah" from proceeding from Fremantle to Portland to load a cargo of 72,000 sheep.

Rural Export and Trading (WA) Pty Ltd contested the order in the Federal Court on October 3 2008. Amongst its arguments were that this was a discriminatory action against foreign-flagged livestock carriers. RETWA operates the (even older) "Al Kuwait", and the 23 year old "Al Shuwaikh", (all Kuwaiti registered) and also is understood to use the 30 year old ex-car transporter "Merino (aka Cormo) Express", registered in the Philippines.

It should be noted that there are no livestock carriers registered (flagged) in Australia; all, without exception, sail under "flags of convenience" such as Panama, obscure Caribbean nations and the Philippines, where requirements are far less stringent. The crews are from third world countries, and Hansard reports indicate that they are vessels of choice for crews "jumping ship".

The "Al Messilah" is particularly noteworthy because of its voyage from Devonport in February 2006, when 1,683 of the 71,309 sheep on board died during the marathon 24 day journey to four Middle Eastern ports. It was met with a storm of protest in Devonport, where animal advocates painted, quite aptly as it turned out, "Death Ship" on its hull. Advocates also attempted to block the ship's entry in the Devonport channel with kayaks and zodiacs.

The mortality report pointed to Tasmanian sheep being poorly adapted to lengthy, cross-equatorial journeys, the outbreak of a disease (keratoconjunctivitis, or pink-eye) which had first presented at the feedlot prior to loading, the animals not being in the feedlot for the mandated period, and "inanition" (a euphemism for starvation), partly because insufficient fodder had been loaded for the journey. One report suggested that the exporter had expected a higher mortality rate and had deliberately loaded insufficient feed.

The "Al Messilah" was also investigated in 2002 when 2,173 of the 74,985 sheep on board died (report available at www.liveexportshame.com). The "Al Shuwaikh was investigated for two successive voyages in 2002 (20 and V21), when 5,800 and 2,304 sheep died respectively. It was allowed to load again before the reports were completed, and a further 1,000 sheep died on that voyage. The "Merino (aka Cormo) Express" is legendary for its mortalities.

A FOI request to AMSA to elicit the name of the ship in question at the time resulted in a request for payment for this information, and it was sourced from the Federal Court (Austlii) database. Such information should be a matter of public record.

AMSA returned the matter to the Federal Court court in February 2009, before Dowsett, Rares and Gilmour JJ. The transcript indicates that the "Al Messilah" has sufficient pollution equipment to deal with the effluent from the approximately 50 crew if carries - but NOTHING to deal with the effluent from the approximately 80,000 animals it can carry. The judges concluded that Siopsis J, the judge who heard the matter on October 3 2008, had erred in his judgment of October 2008, and AMSA's appeal be allowed, with costs.

The "Al Kuwait" and "Al Shuwaikh" are substantially larger, but are not mentioned in the court transcript.

Given that these ships. and possibly others, are dealing with effluent from upwards of 100,000 animals, what will AMSA do the next time one of these ships attempts to load animals in Australian ports? Each has entered and left Australian ports any number of times since last October.

See also: www.liveexportshame.com, Stop Tasmanian Animal Cruelty at www.stoptac.org.