Australian company Searcher has lost an urgent court bid to have a high court reconsider temporarily halting its seismic survey activity off the West Coast.
Last week, Judge Daniel Thulare ruled that the geoscience data company must temporarily halt its seismic survey.
West Coast fishing communities had originally lodged the application for an interim interdict of the survey, pending a legal challenge of Searcher’s reconnaissance permit.
Searcher had not filed its answering affidavit for the hearing of the interim interdict, which was scheduled 7 February. Thulare then decided to grant an interim-interim interdict, pending a hearing for the interim interdict, which was moved to 7 March.
Speaking to Fin24 on the sidelines of the court case, Solene Smith – a member of the fishing community in Langebaan – shared how her husband’s family had relied on fishing for their livelihoods for generations.
“They know the fish,” she said. “The indigenous knowledge they [fishermen] have, that is what I respect. You can’t tell a fisherman to be a doctor, because he was born a fisherman,” said Smith.
Smith added that the communities are prepared to fight to protect the ocean. “We will fight them to the end and we will never give up.”
Christian Adams, a small-scale fisher from Steenberg’s Cove in St Helena Bay, has been fishing all his life. He said the seismic surveys would affect the livelihoods of fishers on the West Coast, which has been the major source of employment for the community throughout the country’s history.
“This is our livelihood, this is all we have,” he said.
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https://www.news24.com/fin24/companies/searcher-still-blocked-from-blasting-in-sa-seas-after-losing-urgent-court-bid-20220214