Unlocking the Blue Economy: experts call for investment in the maritime sector

Durban — Industry experts in the marine sector said that people should be able to identify the vast opportunities offered by the industry.

The sentiments were shared during the recent Africa Maritime Investment Indaba, hosted at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in Durban. The convention saw industry experts unlocking the Blue Economy’s potential and strategic investment opportunities in Africa’s maritime sector.

According to Dr Obakeng Molelu who is the Science to Policy Program Manager for the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association, based in Zanzibar, which does capacity building as well as research in terms of coastal marine resource development, some of the research they had done, including on Durban, indicated that most cities near ports were developing in response to the ports.

“There is a lot of investment going into the port, infrastructure is important, increasing port throughput is important, but, what then happens to the city is that the city then operates at a responsive rate,” she said.

Molelu said that the socio-spatial impact indicated that most people moved to the city due to the opportunities. Therefore, leading the city to face multiple problems such as the shortage of housing and overuse of certain infrastructure, ultimately resulting in the infrastructure struggling to cope due to the increased population.

Speaking about the transport systems within the city, in response to port development and port activity, Molelu said that one of the main issues found in Durban was that there was plenty of traffic (trucks) on the road, however, the roads were not expanding and there were no alternative transport routes, or transport modes to move the cargo as quickly as possible from the harbour into Southern Africa, in general.

She said that there were also issues of the environment.

“We found that there are land based sources of waste that are actually ending up in the ocean. In the case of Durban, they ended up in the harbour and when you looked at it from an outsider’s perspective.

“Transnet would say that ‘this is not our waste.

“The waste belongs to the city’, then the city has to then find ways of actually getting adequate waste management from the upper reaches of the catchment and actually reduce the waste from the upper catchments before it actually reaches down into the harbour,” said Molelu.

She said this had led to various other research projects that have resulted in the capturing of the waste in the upper reaches of the catchment, including the uMngeni upper catchment.

She commended the Durban harbour for its role in tourism.

“In terms of tourism, there is a great relationship between Transnet and the City in enhancing the tourism factor, which is a form of nature based tourism and also contributes to the Blue economy.

“So that is a section we can look into investing into,” she said.

Speaking about Aquaculture and some of the production issues faced, Dr Andre Vosloo from the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s School of Life Sciences said that capture fisheries were plateauing, on a global scale.

“We cannot exploit the ocean any further, so that is a finite amount of protein we can get out of the ocean. So, if we want to supplement our protein for a growing global population, we are going to have to grow aquaculture for very many reasons.

“We have got finite land available for farming large herbivorous creatures. So, aquaculture gives us a way to intensify our production in a sustainable manner,” he said.

He said that the scale of Aquaculture in South Africa was fairly small.

Vosloo said it was important to have a detailed understanding of the animals or plants that were being farmed and adjust conditions accordingly.

Meanwhile, exhibitor Thokozani Mngomezulu, the Director of Durban Fever Travel and Tours, a tour operating company based in the Durban central said he was pleased to be a part of the Indaba.

“It has been very helpful in terms of pulling up strings and connecting with relevant companies.

“We have a very unique package called the Maritime Educational Tour and here there are different companies which are based in the Maritime industry, which is a good thing for us because it gives us an opportunity to network and connect with these big companies and build partnerships with them as a growing business,” he said.

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