MOSSEL BAY NEWS - If, in the heart of the country’s most popular tourist destination - the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town - a fishmeal factory can operate unnoticed and without complaints, what is stopping Afro Fishing (Pty) Ltd in Mossel Bay from establishing a state of the art, more modern facility that will employ first-world, best available technology?
The introduction of technology that will in all likelihood soon be regarded as the Best Available Technology in a contentious industry should be seen as an important aspect of Afro Fishing’s plans to establish a fish meal and oil reduction plant on the Mossel Bay harbour. It will set aside the Port of Mossel Bay as an innovative hub.
Furthermore, it’s argued that Afro Fishing’s fishing facility will contribute to the local economy and will not negatively impact on Mossel Bay heritage and tourism, much like the existing fish meal plant in the Port of Cape Town Waterfront area.
The Cape Town Waterfront fish meal plant proves that the interests of many can be satisfied and yet provide much-needed employment. The Afro Fishing development is not within the urban heart of Mossel Bay where the quaint and small scale buildings are situated. It is within the industrial heart of the working harbour and will be replacing the existing unsightly and dilapidated industrial structures.
Afro Fishing, the owner of the canning factory in the Mossel Bay harbour is planning to establish a facility to include fish meal and oil reduction processes on the current footprint of the old I&J facility, with a new warehouse adjacent to the current Afro Fishing store. The proposal entails the harvesting of industrial fish such as anchovy or red-eye from local waters for the sole purpose of producing fishmeal for animal consumption and fish oil for human consumption.
Economic development
Afro Fishing envisages an investment of R300m to R350m in this project with the expansion potentially increasing direct employment from the current 341 to approximately 560 persons. Increased employment and increased local procurement will support the local economy and businesses.
According to the short, medium and long term plans for the port of Mossel Bay, Quay 1 and 2 will remain part of the commercial fishing precinct of this working harbour. According to the 2014 Provincial Spatial Development Framework, areas such as fishing harbours should be targeted for the regeneration and revitalisation of urban economies.
The Port of Mossel Bay has also been identified as a “strategic harbour” located within an emerging regional centre. This makes it one of only three strategic harbours identified in the Western Cape.
Afro Fishing argues that it is definitely the responsibility of businesses not to negatively impact local heritage or tourism.
Scaremongering
Ever since the plans for this expansion was first mooted earlier this year, the public outcry was fanned by ill-informed and muddled speculation, rumour and disinformation spread on social media.
On Wednesday, 20 November concerned residents met with the Afro Fishing CEO, Deon van Zyl, a qualified chemical engineer with an MBA (University of Cape Town), Senior Environmental Consultant/ECO/GIS Melissa Mackay of Cape EAPrac, the independent Environmental Assessment Practitioner (EAP) responsible to facilitate the legally required Environmental Application Process in terms of the relevant legislation, and other industry specialists such as chemical engineer Chris Albertyn, who is registered as a Professional Engineer (PrEng) by the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) and a Chartered Engineer (CEng) by the Engineering Council in the UK, and is certified as a Qualified Environmental Professional (QEP) under the Institute of Professional Environmental Practice in the USA, a certification that is awarded for multidisciplinary environmental management expertise.
The Qualified Environmental Professional (QEP) certification was initiated in the USA with the aim of improving environmental management in general and is an international programme.
Concerns
Several objections were raised, among others the fear that Mossel Bay’s CBD would soon reek of putrid fish meal and that the sea adjacent to the plant would be severely polluted.
However, according to specialists, the impacts are likely to negligible to moderate.
First world technology
Technology not yet in use for the fishing industry anywhere in the country, but employed widely in first world countries, is proposed for the Afro Fishing fish meal processing plant. Odours will be managed using the odour abatement methods such as a Regenerative Thermal Oxider (RTO) plant. The RTO plant operates at maximum temperatures of 850C and will incinerate the particles that cause bad odours.
The only way to ensure zero industrial air pollution is to have zero industries. This, however, is not feasible and the best way then is to ensure that emissions do not impact negatively on the area. Everybody involved in this project, Afro Fishing, its environmental consultants, and the relevant authorities are highly conscious of the very sensitive nature of locating a fishmeal factory in the Mossel Bay harbour.
Everything is done to ensure that any emissions from the proposed plant will not impact negatively on the surrounding area, including the detection of odours. Is it possible the odorous emissions may occur? Yes, it is, but at such levels that it will not be detectable by the community.
Fresh fish
Afro Fishing will obtain fish from fishing boats that are allocated quotas for the industrial fish species. Pelagic fishing quotas are issued annually after analysis of the bi-annual biomass surveys also known as the Total Allowable Catch or TAC. The TAC determines the amount of fish that may be caught in any given year.
This TAC is updated during the year as the catch data is submitted. Certain species of pelagic fish are not suitable for human consumption for several reasons. For example, anchovy is small and oily and not conducive to filleting and processing for human consumption.
This type of fish is in abundance in SA waters and therefore harvested for reduction into fish meal and fish oil.
Fish meal is sold into the animal feed industry and fish oil mainly used for human consumption. The fish are caught at night because they mainly feed and shoal at night.
The use of Refrigerated Sea Water (RSW) and Chilled Sea Water (CSW) on the boats will ensure that the cold chain is maintained until the boats reach the harbour. This practice is currently in place for the existing cannery already so it will not be a new concept. On reaching the harbour, the holds are pumped out, which means the fish stay in the cold water and are not exposed to air which further slows any decomposition.
Fish that are kept cold take longer to decompose and produce trimethylamine (TMA) which is the odorous compound. Once the fish is inside the building, the ventilation system will direct all air via the RTO. TMA is destroyed at around 120C and the RTO will operate at up to 850C. The RTO unit will effectively incinerate any possible odoriferous odours.
The RTO technology is first world, state of the art and has as yet not been applied in SA. It is, however, used very successfully in many European cities and towns and in other parts of the world.
Indirect steam dryers
Concerns raised about the drying process of the fishmeal were also addressed. The offensive odours are not released during drying. The drying process actually stabilises the product and is the reason why fish meal can be stored safely for years once dried. Afro Fishing will install indirect steam dryers.
These are dryers with rotary discs heated by live steam and through the process of conduction, the discs heat the wet meal and evaporate off the excess water. Hot water vapour is removed from the dryer and used as the heat source in the liquids evaporation plant.
All the water vapour is condensed either in the evaporators or in the water scrubber following evaporation. So essentially air is not the transport medium to remove the water vapour from the dryers. Vacuum and blowers are the driving force.
Some air will be in the system and this is why the remaining air emitted from the drying process will be incinerated in the RTO unit.
Rotten fish
Afro Fishing was adamant that no rotten fish will be used by this factory. The delivery of rotten fish is not common to practice as it is not economically viable and skippers and crew will be dismissed for such practices. It does not happen anywhere in South Africa. It must also be borne in mind that the current fish canning plant operated by Afro Fishing produces products destined for human consumption.
Various control measures are already in place to ensure proper hygiene and health standards, including control over the quality of the fish currently being delivered to Afro Fishing. The fish oil that will be produced in the proposed fishmeal plant is also destined for human consumption, with the result that Afro Fishing will extend that current fresh fish quality control procedures to the fish delivered to the fishmeal plant, the main parameter is the temperature at which the fish is delivered to site.
According to the Air Quality Impact Assessment, the development of TMA is slowed when the product is kept cold (either by means of ice or refrigeration). Processing time within 24 hours is optimal for the quality of the final protein product, however, the studies have shown that TMA can be slowed for up to 100 hours when kept below 5C.
This is also current practice to ensure the quality of the sardines for the cannery which has to reach standards for human consumption. The further design of the facility with the RTO will significantly lower the risks of nuisance odours from the offloading and processing at the fishmeal facility.
Environment and effluent
An important aspect of a fish meal plant is that all the raw materials are processed to achieve maximum protein collection. There is therefore no offal. The existing cannery has some offal and this has been disposed of for the past 13 years without any threats to the environment or persons.
Discharge monitored
Afro Fishing has a Coastal Waters Discharge Permit from the Department of Environmental Affairs for the discharge of process water from the cannery. This discharge is monitored on a daily basis when the plant is in operation and will be amended to incorporate the cooling seawater for the proposed fishmeal facility.
Policing the odours
The Garden Route District Municipality will conduct a baseline odour screening at the harbour. This will provide a starting point to identify in the future, any potential problems and their origins.
The proposed facility will implement the Best Available Technology to ensure that their impact on the air quality at the port complies with all relevant requirements. Please also note that the other fishmeal facility to which you refer has recently had their license revoked for non-compliance.
Thus it is a priority of Afro Fishing to ensure that this facility is designed, built and operated at the highest standards.
Furthermore, fish meal is stored in polypropylene bags so the product is sealed. Fish meal anyhow is a stable product and does not deteriorate. There will be no offensive odours emitted from a warehouse.
No processing December/January holidays
Afro Fishing's proposed fishmeal plant is highly unlikely to operate 100% of the time as the availability of fish for processing is subject to seasonal variations. It is expected that the plant will run at full capacity for 4 to 8 weeks per year after which it will operate at reduced capacity and only whenever fresh fish is available.
Due to the fishing permitting system applied by the Government, no fish processing will be carried out from mid-December to mid-January.
Mossel Bay Waterfront
Concerns about the possible development of a waterfront at the harbour were also addressed. Industry, commercial and residentially zoned areas neighbour one another as defined by the local municipal precinct guidelines. Afro Fishing avers that they are not changing any of this.
With regards to the Mossel Bay Waterfront, the Quay 4 side of the harbour has been allocated for this activity. According to the Portnet and Municipal precinct plan, the Quay 1 side of the harbour remains allocated to fishing activities as this is a working harbour.
The new standard
In order to achieve top prices for fish meal and fish oil, fresh fish must be processed. This is the same driver for reduced odour emissions so it is in Afro Fishing’s best interests to maintain standards 100% of the time. The RTO plant has a successful history in similar situations and Afro Fishing intends for this to become the new standard for fishmeal facilities.
The activity requires the necessary Environmental Authorisation (EA) and Atmospheric Emissions License (AEL) in order to commence and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEA&DP) and Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) are the respective competent authority to consider this application.
More detailed information is available on www.cape-eaprac.co.za.
Wessel van Brakel (Delplan Consulting), Melissa Mackay (Cape EAPrac Environmental Assesment Practitioners), Chris Albertyn (Letaba Air Quality Specialists), De la Rey Viljoen (Delplan Consulting), JB Snyman (CVW Consulting Engineers), Frans van Aard (Urban Engineering), Danie Wessels (V3 Consulting Engineers) and Deon van Zyl (Afro Fishing) at the information session and public meeting regarding the proposed fishmeal and oil reduction plant. Photo: Jannie du Plessis
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