Shipping sector could lose business if sea lane shifts
Shipping and marine industries are fearful of another crisis in their waters such as losing the geographical preference, after a proposal to shift the shipping lane of Dondra’s head to the South Coast to protect whales from being hit by ships but the government is totally rejecting it.
The separation scheme used to manage traffic called the Traffic Separation Stone (TSS) puts vessels on a collision course with endangered whales, six non-governmental organisations said in an application to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) recently. The application requested the IMO to instruct the government to shift this lane further south.
However, the fact that TSS is near the southern coast of the country, in between two major ports – Galle and Hambantota, offers the main requisite for potential maritime business to have ships frequenting the proximity of service ports, industry officials point out.
Captain Ranjith Weerasinghe, Ship Owner, and ancillary ship service provider told the Business Times that it’s important to find out if the mammals will change their behaviour by shifting the TSS 12 more nautical miles south, as being mooted by environmentalists and whale watching groups.
And the government, through the Foreign Ministry has taken a hard stance to not give in to this request. “We do not agree to shift the TSS. We convened a stakeholder meeting recently with the representation of IMO in Sri Lanka, which is the Merchant Shipping Secretariat. We are mapping out a strategy as to how we should meet this requirement. We totally disagree with the proposal to shift the TSS as we will be clearly in a tough situation if done so,” Ali Sabry, Minister of Foreign Affairs, told The Business Times on Friday.
Captain Weerasinghe said that if the TSS is closer to the land, mammals will stay away from the land, making it easier for both parties to exist.
Rohan Masakorala, CEO of Shippers Academy in Colombo told the Business Times that there is a larger agenda in shifting the TSS. “There is no credible evidence validated to date in Sri Lanka on the impact of the TSS on whale traffic. There have been only isolated incidents. By moving the TSS, there will be economic and financial impacts to the industry which again will badly reflect in the struggling economy,” he said. Now there are over a thousand ships per month calling off Galle port for services because of the close proximity of the TSS. “Shifting this further southward, we’ll see the industry losing a lot of dollars,” Captain Weerasinghe said. He said that of the 275 master mariners in the country whose experience ranges from 12 to 40 years of sailing, there has been no instance of a ship striking a whale.
Industry officials say that blindly shifting TSS in favour of tourism revenue from whale watching may see the country losing its geographical preference without active harbours. Companies promoting whale watching are also seeking to change the sea route. Without Hambantota, Galle, and Colombo ports coming in, shipping competitors in Singapore and UAE which are already hubs will have a better advantage, officials say raising concerns.
The three ports conduct services such as crew transfers, carrying food items to the ships, ship spares, and conducting certain types of maritime surveys. As many as 30 to 40,000 ships use the TSS and pass by through the three ports.
“There are reasonable facts to consider about whales, such as how long they stay in the south of the country and why they are there, along with whether they would move to another area after some time. The country is mooting a hub status in the industry, with a long way to go, a few nautical miles away may be an opportunity for another country,” an official said.
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