Ten ships from Romania, loaded with at least 130,000 live animals, are stranded in the Suez Canal, on their way to third countries in the Middle East. The blockage is the largest in history and comes after the failure of the largest cargo in the world. The animal's risk dying of hunger and thirst, said in a telephone intervention, at Digi24, Gabriel Păun, the director for Europe of the "Animal International" organization.
At the level of the National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA), a crisis cell was set up to manage, according to its responsibilities, the situation generated by the temporary blockage of the Suez Canal and the movement of animal transport vessels, ANSVSA said in a statement.
Veterinary authorities say they have contacted shipowners who have given assurances that they have sufficient stocks for the animals and that the ships have desalination facilities if drinking water runs out. Shipowners have even found solutions to refuel in other ports or to unload animals in places other than scheduled destinations.
The National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority set up a crisis cell on Saturday. The best options are sought so that the 130,000 thousand animals are not killed by hunger, thirst, heat or overcrowding. The first step was to stop, on March 24, all the ships that were going to go to the same destination and to remain blocked before entering the canal.
Currently, the ships have water and animal feed. They were loaded with an additional 25%. I am waiting in the Mediterranean, 5 in the Aegean Sea, and 6 waiting. The option for the 5 ships that are in the Aegean to return, I gave them the opportunity to return because they are 4, 5 days away is Midia. Another measure is to land the animals in nearby ports, which will ensure animal protection conditions.
"The blockade is the largest in history and occurred on Tuesday, March 23, following the failure of Ever Given, the world's largest cargo measuring 400 meters long, weighing 220,000 tons and blocking the entire Suez Canal. Despite continued efforts of the Egyptian authorities, the ship could not be moved and it is not known when the situation will be remedied ", Animals International transmitted on Saturday.
The director of the organization, Gabriel Păun, claims that it could be "the biggest maritime tragedy in the history of mankind".
"The situation in Suez is critical and risks becoming the greatest maritime tragedy in human history involving living animals. If the animals run out of water and food then they will start pushing into each other and they will all die. This was the case of the 14,800 sheep in Romania on the Trust 1 ship bound for Jordan a few years ago. They all died when the ship ran out of drinking water, "said Gabriel Păun, EU director of Animals International.
The organization points out that Romania is already in the sights of the European Commission, which has found numerous deficiencies in the port of Midia.
"The tragedy in Midia, in November 2019, when the Queen Hind ship capsized, killing over 14,500 animals, traumatized an entire world that saw images that do not honor our country. The only chance to avoid an even worse situation is that Romania to immediately suspend the export of live animals, to call back all animal ships awaiting entry into Suez, and to begin on that occasion the export of meat instead of living animals, a trade which would eliminate unnecessary animal suffering and economically profitable for Romania ", Păun also declared.
Initially, the Egyptian authorities said that the ship is likely to have failed due to the strong wind, but now they claim that it is a human piloting error. More than 200 ships are stranded at both ends of the Suez Canal, the most important seaway of its kind in the world. The blockade costs world trade $ 400 million an hour.
Morgan McManus - captain, US Navy: "The canal is difficult in terms of time. You need 16 hours to go through it, it's a long day, with lasting evolutions ... I went through it with various types of ships similar to Ever Given. When you face such a strong wind, you have to anticipate and correct the course of the ship, to compensate for the force of the wind. So it becomes difficult, you can face sandstorms, you lose visibility, you have to rely on the radar ".
Asked if this situation was caused by human error or if this channel needs improvements for the growing ships that pass through it, Morgan McManus replied: "In my opinion, this is probably a human element, the pilot or helmsman have somehow lost control. "
These routes, through which larger and larger ships pass, are more difficult to save because container vessels have doubled in the last decade, according to an analysis by insurer Allianz. However, blockages of this kind are rare, according to a Bloomberg analysis.
The first closure of the Suez Canal took place in 1956. Then, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the naval corridor, a Franco-British property, which led to a triple invasion of Egypt by Israel, Britain, and France. As a result, the canal was closed between October 1956 and March 1957.
The longest blockade took place between June 1967 and June 1975. In 1967, Egyptian and Israeli forces clashed along the waterway during the Six-Day War and again in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War. It was not until 1975 that the canal was cleaned by sunken ships and reopened. During this period, carriers who wanted to reach Europe had to bypass Africa, which increased the cost and duration of shipments.
In April 2016, a cargo ship failed and blocked the waterway for two days. Then, in July 2018, the canal was closed for several hours after a Greek ship suffered an engine failure and caused a collision involving four other ships.
Other waterways also suffered from traffic disruptions. For example, the Panama Canal closed for a day in 1989, when US military forces launched an attack on the country to overthrow dictator Manuel Noriega.
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