The fate of thousands of cattle and sheep on board a ship ordered back to Australia amid security concerns in the Red Sea remains up in the air, as the vessel now sits off the coast of Western Australia 24 days after its departure.
Key points:
- It's not known if any of the livestock have died
- The vessel is not listed on the Fremantle Ports arrivals system
- Authorities ordered the ship to return amid instability in the Middle East
The MV Bahijah left Fremantle port on January 5, bound for Jordan — a trip that usually takes about three weeks.
But 15 days into that voyage it was ordered to return to Australia by the federal Department of Agriculture due to the deteriorating security situation in the Middle East.
Ten days later the ship is now just off the coast of WA.
The ship, operated by Israeli-based Bassem Dabbah Ltd, is facing biosecurity issues as the livestock on board cannot be reintroduced to an Australian herd despite not having berthed at any other port.
The health of the animals on board is also unclear.
Deaths above 0.5 per cent of the total livestock on board are considered "reportable" under department rules.
'Keep animals on board': WAFarmers
Industry's preferred plan is for the animals to be kept on the ship before being re-exported to the same market, taking the longer route around Africa rather than via the Red Sea, where Houthi rebels continue their attacks against commercial ships in the region.
President of the WAFarmers livestock section Geoff Pearson said the regulator needed to approve the voyage — which he said would take 33 days — today.
"The biosecurity risks of offloading these livestock coming out of foreign waters is not an option when we have the option of re-exporting these livestock immediately," Mr Pearson said.
"You have to go through a whole logistical nightmare of having to quarantine these livestock from anything else.
"What it does is it basically locks up anything that can be moved from these premises for a very long time — now I don't know any establishment, any business that wants to do that."
Mr Pearson said because the cattle had been in foreign waters aboard a ship that had carted foreign cattle, they effectively had to be treated as foreign livestock.
Ship to berth during heatwave
But the RSPCA said it was vital the animals were taken off the ship, as conditions once it berths would become unbearable, and sending them on another voyage would be absolutely unacceptable.
"These sheep and cattle would have been standing in their own waste for the last 24 days, they have probably become increasingly stressed over that time as well due to the movement of the ship," RSPCA chief scientist Dr Suzanne Fowler said.
"One of the really concerning parts is that once the ship has berthed it is stationary, and so ventilation in parts of the ship will no doubt be very poor.
"A lot of these ships completely rely on the movement of the ship and zigzagging in the ocean to try and get ventilation into certain areas of the ship."
Temperatures are forecast to hit 36 degrees in Perth tomorrow and 40 degrees on Wednesday.
"The cattle and the sheep would really suffer at that point, we would expect the temperature in some of the pens to get very high very quickly," Dr Fowler said.
The RSPCA has called for all live export to stop to the region as the security situation is so unstable.
It is worried ships will be diverted and spend too long at sea, which increases the risk to animal welfare.
"The departure of the Bahijah on 5 January when conflict in the region was already escalating means this situation was entirely predictable and should never have been allowed to occur," Dr Fowler said.
Dr Fowler called on the Department of Agriculture to provide transparency about the plans for the animals.
"These errors and the risks they have created must not be used as an excuse to force further suffering upon these animals. They must not be made to endure another live export journey," she said.
"A humane solution needs to be found on Australian soil with proper management of the biosecurity risks."
Biosecurity fears considered
The department has previously said the livestock was being managed in accordance with their welfare needs, and to ensure Australia's biosecurity requirements are met.
It has not provided an update since January 20 despite repeated requests from the ABC.
Australian Livestock Exporters Council chief executive Mark Harvey-Sutton said the situation is not unprecedented, with ships having to turn back to Australia due to mechanical issues in the past.
"This is certainly probably one of the longer voyages that has returned to Australia," he said.
"But it has not docked in any other port, it has not picked up fodder from any other country, which means that the biosecurity risks are very much manageable."
Mr Harvey-Sutton said vessels have contingency plans that will ensure the welfare of the animals.
"Every vessel that's exported, or exports, livestock to the Middle East has an accredited veterinarian on board, they have an accredited stock hand, and they also have contingency markets in place," he said.
"The Department of Agriculture is obviously looking at this very closely as are our exporters, because they do not want to send their livestock or their staff into harm's way."
"The process at the moment is each consignment or future consignment will be assessed on a case by case basis, we very much support that."
He said the animals could still be taken off the vessel and held in a secure facility and then slaughtered in Australia, or they could be exported again at a later date.
Mr Harvey-Sutton said the situation in the Red Sea was difficult, but it was important that exporters could reach those markets to ensure food security.
He said sheep exports to the region had recently grown significantly.
Mutton exports rose from 2,225 tonnes in January 2023 to 3,048 tonnes in December, while lamb jumped from 3,229 to 5,338 tonnes.
Livestock in good health: Cook
WA Premier Roger Cook said the government was concerned about the welfare of the animals and was happy to work with federal authorities to resolve the issue.
"My understanding is that the livestock are in good health at the moment, but we will for biosecurity reasons need to quarantine for a period of time if they are to come on shore," he said.
"I think we've got about 2,500 head of cattle and 14,000 sheep, so that's obviously a large number of animals that will need to be quarantined.
"We have facilities which we use in the normal course of events for these sorts of activities but obviously it's a fairly large number in this case."
The ABC has been unable to reach export company Bassem Dabbah.
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