BAHIJAH LOADING SET TO BEGIN

The MV Bahijah is back in Fremantle Port and expected to load within the next 24h.
It should be noted that for cattle, the original voyage, had it been extended as the exporters requested, without unloading, could well have resulted in a high mortality voyage (see explanation below). However, for all animals, the initial time from first loading to end of unloading in Israel, will be the longest cumulative voyage ever undertaken from Australia. An absolute disgrace that should never have been permitted by the Australian Dept of Ag.

POTENTIAL FOR HIGH MORTALITY VOYAGE
The Dept of Ag Update on 14 February 2024 (https://www.agriculture.gov.au/about/news/mv-bahijah-live-updates) stated that "All livestock from the MV Bahijah have been discharged and taken by truck from Fremantle Port to appropriate premises in Western Australia. Since 5 January 2024, total mortalities stand at 4 (0.18%) cattle and 64 (0.45%) sheep on board the MV Bahijah, which are below the reportable mortality levels, and 7 cattle and 6 sheep on land.”
If 4 cattle = 0.18% then the consignment had somewhere between 2170 and 2230 cattle onboard. Unless the cattle died due to misadventure (such as broken leg) on the truck or feedlot (some cattle unloaded before 12th Feb due to vessel  space constraints)  then it is possible even likely that they would have died on board had the voyage been allowed to sail to Israel as the exporters requested. Picking a mid range cattle number eg 2200 and using 11 mortalities, the total “voyage” mortality rate by 14th Feb could well have been 0.5% (ie a high mortality voyage) had it been allowed to proceed. This voyage likely went very close to the wire with 4 of those 7 cattle mortalities on land reported by Australian media at the time to have died on the trucks at the first unloading (ie likely already sick when removed from boat thus not added to boat mortality numbers).