One battle at a time, South African environmental soldiers have taken their fight to the western front where another seismic survey is threatening the lives of local communities and marine wildlife.
Barely two weeks after South African environmentalists and local communities won a landmark court interdiction stopping global energy giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc. from carrying out a seismic survey for oil and gas on the country’s eastern coast because local communities had not been consulted, the very same environmentalists are back in the courts, this time to stop a much bigger seismic survey on the west coast where local communities were allegedly also kept in the dark.
Searcher Seismic, an Australian geoscience company, is carrying out the controversial seismic activity across the West Coast of South Africa, stretching from Cape Columbine, about 170km north of Cape Town, to Namibia. The area in which the exploration is taking place is called the Orange Basin. Searcher is expected to conduct its survey along approximately 10,000km2 of the roughly 22,000km2 of the Reconnaissance Permit application area. The company will conduct 2D and/or 3D seismic survey programmes between the Orange River mouth and Cape Columbine.
It is this exploration work that has infuriated local communities and environmentalists.
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https://www.fairplanet.org/story/another-seismic-battle-for-south-african-environmentalists/