South African fishery fleet maintenance for Damen

A DAFF spokesman said that there is an immediate and urgent focus to get two of these ships, the 83m offshore patrol vessel Sarah Baartman and the 78m research vessel Africana, operational again as soon as possible.

The Sarah Baartman is one of four Damen-designed patrol ships. She is to the OPV 8313 design, and was built in 2005. The Lilian Ngoyi, Ruth First and Victoria Mxenge are of the Damen Stan Patrol 4708 type and were built from 2004 to 2006 in Cape Town. They are used as fisheries protection and surveillance vessels to protect South Africa’s EEZ from illegal fishing.

The two fisheries research vessels, the 30-year-old Africana and the 43m Ellen Khuzwayo, built 2007 in Cape Town, will, when work is completed, undertake research programmes on South Africa´s marine environment as part of DAFF´s policy to protect human life and promote the conservation and sustainable use of marine living resource.