Case Decision - 197411

The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) would like to thank you for submitting the Draft Environmental Management Plan (DEMP) for the proposed speculative seismic survey in the Algoa, Gamtoos, and Outeniqua Basins off the Southeast Coast, offshore between Plettenberg Bay and Algoa Bay, South Africa.
The project entails collecting 3D-seismic data with a survey vessel by firing airguns and collecting the reflected soundwaves by towed hydrophone streamers which can be interpreted for anomalies. The area of interest lies at its closest, 30 km from the coastline, not near any Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), and covers an area of between 1000 km² to 3500 km², ranging in depth from 150 m to 4000 m. The field data would be collected from December 2021 to March 2022 and the seismic survey vessel would be assisted by a support and an escort vessel.
In Table 2-2: “Other applicable South African legislation”, No. 16 speaks to the National Heritage Resources Act, No. 25 of 1999 (NHRA) and in Table 2-3: “Ratified international conventions and treaties” No. 24 and No. 25 speaks to Archaeology and Cultural Heritage. It is important to note that although the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage of 2001 (No. 25) intends to protect wrecks that are older than 100 years, Section 2(iic) the NHRA (No. 16) defines wrecks older than 60 years as archaeological, under section 2(ii)(c), and provides protection for them through Section 35 of the NHRA. No. 16’s text must therefore be updated to reflect this.
The area of interest is well offshore, with no known heritage resources occurring there. Specifically, no known wrecks are located within the proposed survey area. As pointed out in the DEMP, under section 7.9 on page 146, no wrecks are known to have occurred in the survey area. There are, however, at least 310 recorded wrecking incidents that have occurred along that stretch of coastline, and the locations of these wrecks are unknown. The potential for detecting previously unknown maritime and underwater cultural heritage resources in the area exists and such discoveries must be reported to SAHRA without delay in accordance with Section 35(3) of NHRA. Survey data, and/or resulting information or analyses that could aid in the discovery of offshore heritage resources, such as shipwrecks, must be shared with SAHRA.
Please note that all updates and/or changes to the project, supporting documentation, correspondence, reports, or any other work relating to the project must be uploaded to the case on SAHRIS to provide SAHRA with the opportunity to comment. SAHRA does not accept emailed documents or hard-copy documents received via post.