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The Invisible Threat

For now, the South African oil and gas boom is hardly visible to the naked eye. However, the maps of the South African Petroleum Agency make it strikingly clear to see what is on the horizon for coastal communities. All around the southern tip of the African continent, almost every inch of ocean is part of an oil and gas block.¹⁴⁹¹⁹ In fact, oil and gas blocks cover approximately 95% of South Africa’s marine environment. Despite South Africa’s exceptional marine biodiversity, only 5% of the ocean lies within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that prohibit oil and gas exploration and production.¹⁴⁹²¹

Loud and Risky Business

When oil and gas companies buy stakes in a license and apply for exploration rights off South Africa's coast, they are investing in a black box. They do not know where or if they will find oil and gas within the block. To find the oil and gas deposits and estimate the size of the reserves hidden deep under the seabed, they use seismic surveys.

Blasting the Wild Coast

In 2021, the South African subsidiaries of Shell and Impact Oil and Gas started preparing a seismic survey off the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape province. Like many places along the South African coastline, the Wild Coast's biodiversity is dazzling. The mix of swift currents from the cool Atlantic in the west and warmer Indian Ocean in the east gives rise to a paradise of marine life all along the South African coast. Off the Wild Coast, the water transitions from subtropical to warm. Here, numerous fish species find protection from overfishing.¹⁴⁹⁵³ Colorful lace corals cover the seabed, creating an endless exotic underwater garden. The steep cliffs, sandy shores and subtidal reefs are home to many species that do not live anywhere else.¹⁴⁹⁵⁵ Between May and December, thousands of whales and dolphins pass the Wild Coast. Most of them are hunting the billions of sardines that swim with the cooler winter current towards Mozambique. Humpback whales pass by on their way from Antarctica to breed and calve in warmer waters.¹⁴⁹⁵⁷ Three Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), Dwesa-Cwebe, Hluleka and Pondoland, ensure that large parts of the coast and sea are out of bounds for oil and gas exploration and other industrial activities.¹⁴⁹⁵⁹ The Amathole Offshore MPA lies directly south of the Wild Coast. Even though Shell and Impact Oil and Gas knew that seismic noise would travel beyond the borders of these protected areas, the companies planned their exploration just outside the four MPAs.¹⁴⁹⁶¹

When Shell and Impact Oil and Gas arrived on the Wild Coast, Indigenous communities had reason to fear the potential consequences of the exploration plans. Indigenous people have lived along the Wild Coast for centuries, long before anyone had heard of oil, gas or Marine Protected Areas. They have deep spiritual and cultural ties to the ocean. Seismic surveys in other parts of the country had raised many questions and provided the Indigenous communities with few answers. In 2016, US company Schlumberger extended a seismic survey into the South African whale migration period. The same year, a record number of whales stranded on the beaches of KwaZulu Natal. Later investigations found no clear link between the survey and the strandings, but the event alerted researchers and Indigenous environmental defenders. If seismic surveys could potentially kill a massive animal like the whale, how would they affect the rest of the ecosystem? As Sinegugu Zukulu, a member of Sustaining the Wild Coast from the Amadiba community, put it: “[We] are the conservationists of the sea in our area, using practices handed down to us over generations”.¹⁴⁹⁶³ The Umgungundlovu, Dwesa-Cwebe, Port Saint Johns, and other Indigenous communities know better than anyone that the true value of their home easily exceeds the short-term profits of oil and gas companies.¹⁴⁹⁶⁵