Watch this space for daily updates on ship position and speed - it needs to maintain an average of 11.5 knots to make it to Pakistan by the most direct route in the estimated time (2024-02-14 15:30 LT (UTC +5) originally and now 2024-02-15 08:00 LT (UTC +5):

Position received: 2024-01-24 09:16 LT (UTC +9)
Area: EAUS - Great Australian Bight
Navigational Status: Underway using Engine
Speed/Course: 11.0 kn / 278 °
Top speed: 12.5kn

Only day 2 and the ETA has already changed by a day....speeding right along with not a chance of being there on the 14th as we knew and has now been recognised on Marine Traffic!

In the height of the concerns about farmers needing/ wanting to offload sheep to ships maybe they should ask why the exporters are not helping support them?  Instead of loading Australian animals and heading off to the Middle east (ith Ramadan approaching), the Al Kuwait stopped in Freo (presumably for fodder/ provisions) headed off empty to Brazil, presumably to take a more luctrative cattle consignment. 

WA farmers feel aggrieved and blame Albo but perhaps they should look to their own and take it up with them/

Watch this space for daily updates on ship position and speed - it needs to maintain an average of11.5 knots to make it to Pakistan by the most direct route in the estimated time:

2024-01-23 19:01 LT (UTC +9)
Area: EAUS - Great Australian Bight
Navigational Status: Underway using Engine
Speed/Course: 10.7 kn / 282 °

Despite VALE's desperate attempt to contact the Dept of Agriculture and alert them to the danger of sending a slow little ship from Portland to Karachi when Iran is sending rockets into Pakistan, the ship set sail today.
The facts:
1. This is a very small, slow ship (11-12 knot average; Marine Traffic lists even slower - 9 knots average)
2. This ship reportedly has no bulk fodder storage so has absolutely no possibility to return to Australia if anything goes wrong (unlike Bahijah).
3. Karachi is on the fringe of area of Houthi activity in the Arabian sea but Iran is firing rockets into Pakistan
4. This vessel is totally unsuited to a long voyage to Karachi at any time but certainly at the time of current hostilities.
It is unknown what contingency plan was in place for the Bahijah but at least the ship had the food storage capacity to enable return to Australia when everything went pear-shaped. It is difficult to know what contingency plances are in place that could actually work with this small ship and no fodder and the Dept were not forthcoming with any information on the topic. Did the Dept just ask yes and no questions ie Do you have a contingency plan? YES... OK, tick, we dont need to see what it is?

The Australian Government has recalled the livestock carrier Bahijah after it diverted from the Red Sea over a week into its voyage to the Middle East. The Bahijah loaded cattle and sheep in Fremantle and departed for the Middle East on January 5, 2024. The vessel has an Israeli company name painted in large letters along the side of the hull.

Maritime Link reported VALE's comments: : “Live export is uniquely and inherently risky, but this was a predictable and preventable risk that was nothing short of foolhardy - allowing an Israeli-owned ship to leave Australia to travel through the Red Sea in January 2024.

“It is not known what contingency plans were in place, but it appears that loading food at East London, South Africa, and taking the ship around the Cape was one of them. If so, then the Department has little to no understanding of the fodder capacity at East London. Tons of appropriate pellets for shipboard augurs are not usually on standby for the odd Australian live export ship that needs them. In addition, one wonders what contingency plans there were for cleaning out six weeks of sheep feces.” The feces is not usually removed for 3-4 week Middle East voyages."

It beggars belief but still they let them go - check Friesian Express, a tiny slow ship loading Australian dairy cattle from Portland to go to PAKISTAN (on the edge of the troubles). So... what contingency have they for that one - it hasnt even got bulk food storage.

VALE has previously blogged on the folly and danger of shipping animals live to the ME with the current shipping volatility. RSPCA have met with the Dept to express concerns also. But the trade must go on....and what a predictable outcome: a vessel with Israeli owners, carrying Australian livestock headed to Israel is now having to turn back to Australia.
Consequences: for the exported livestock - a long and unnecessary voyage, with likely uncertain fodder adequacy (when they could have been slaughtered here in the first place).
Consequences for the farmers: priority of these animals on the kill floor due to quarantine/biosecurity concerns concerns
Consequences for Australia: a biosecurity risk that now has to be managed. Lets hope that no viral vectors have been picked up in transit and brought back or this foolhardy decision by the Dept to support this minority trade could literally come back to bite us.