Case Decision - 197227

The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) would like to thank you for submitting the Background Information Document (BID) for the proposed Cepheus Offshore Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) moored within St Helena Bay, Saldanha Bay Local Municipality, West Coast District Municipality, Western Cape Province. 
As part of the Environmental Authorisation process a Scoping Report and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) must be completed. The BID has already identified in Section 7 that a Marine Archaeological and Cultural Impact Assessment is to be undertaken as part of the process, and SAHRA supports this. 
In terms of the National Heritage Resources Act, No 25 of 1999 (NHRA), Sections 2 and 35 stipulate that any wreck, being any vessel or aircraft, or any part thereof, older than 60 years in South Africa's territorial waters or maritime cultural zone, is protected and falls under the jurisdiction of SAHRA's Maritime and Underwater Cultural Heritage Unit. These heritage sites or objects may not be disturbed without a permit from the relevant heritage resources authority. 
The proposed FSRU is to be moored in St Helena Bay which is an historic fishing harbour and records show there are potentially two wrecks for which we do not have accurate coordinates located in the area. 
The proposed Cepheus FSRU project (Case ID17145) is being undertaken in conjunction with the gas pipeline network (Case ID17143) linking the ship to the mainland along with a further Sagitta FSRU (Case ID17144) and associated pipeline in Saldanha Bay. All three projects are being done under a single EIA process but have been uploaded as separate cases on SAHRIS however a single Maritime heritage assessment will suffice to cover all three aspects of the project. 
Due to the possibility that heritage resources may be present in the area of the proposed mooring point for the FSRU, the heritage impact assessment must include a specialist study of maritime and underwater cultural heritage to be undertaken by a suitably qualified Maritime Archaeologist.