In January last year, ALEC actively promoted Morocco as a significant new live export market, expected to import 100,000 Australian sheep ‘as soon as possible’. VALE prepared a fact-check article which said live sheep exports to Morocco were unrealistic, based on distance to market, regulatory and commercial constraints and lack of shipping.
 
Mark Harvey-Sutton, CEO of ALEC rubbished VALE’s fact check (see:  https://www.sheepcentral.com/exporters-reject-claim-of-no-ships-for-moroccan-sheep-trade/ ). Harvey-Sutton said “While it was nice of them [VALE] to google shipping distances and livestock export numbers from Europe and send it to you, quite frankly they don’t have a clue about the likelihood of exports to Morocco commencing and I recommend you put it in the bin.”
 
So...one year on – there have not been any sheep exported to Morocco.
https://en.hespress.com/130277-morocco-has-not-imported-any-australian-sheep-despite-market-opening.html
https://en.yabiladi.com/articles/details/186503/despite-morocco-interest-australia-export.html
 
And the reasons Harvey-Sutton has given for no trade? Distance to market and commercial constraints. Who would have thought? Perhaps VALE has a better understanding of live sheep export markets than Harvey-Sutton does?

In 40 degree Fremantle heat yesterday, cattle were loaded onto the Friesian Express. Sharp eyed vets partying in the harbour noted with concern that Friesian heifers among those onboard and sent video footage to VALE.
The problem - sure, loading in this heat was unacceptable but even worse, high producing dairy cows were never bred for the tropics. They suffer and then they die
So, why are we sending Friesian heifers to Indonesia to give milk to a country we are told has problems with refrigeration?
Answer: because farmers and exporters make money out of it.
Apart from small "boutique" operations using Jerseys, every time, Australia has attempted this it has been a failure as :
1) high producing dairy cows cant cope with the tropics
2) there is not actually enough high quality feed for high producing dairy cows in the tropics
3) there is no infrastructure to support dairy farmers start an extremely challenging animal production system in a developing country.
If we look at the last time, Australia did this - Wellard in Sri Lanka..it was an animal welfare and a social disaster - cattle died, farmers went broke. The fallout extended to banks and government. This will be no different.
See: https://www.sundaytimes.lk/250615/news/how-a-multimillion-dollar-loan-dairy-cow-bid-turned-sour-and-left-the-industry-high-and-dry-601443.html
See: https://www.wellard.com.au/wellard-to-make-changes-to-sri-lanka-dairy-program/ where Wellard laid the blame on the farmers.

Spiridon II  left Uruguay with 2901 cattle on board, about half of which were pregnant on September 20, 2025 and was then detained in Turkey from October 22 to November 14 2025. The veterinarian on board left the ship in Turkey. The ship then departed Turkey and after tracking around here there and everywhere often with AIS turned off, the  ship docked at Benghazi on November 22 in the afternoon and images show cattle trucks near the vessel. On November 24, it departed Benghazi with no more dead bodies on decks and also no more hay on deck. Presumably no animals left on the ship, either alive or dead....which is a relief for the cattle. Not so great for marine pollution as the sewage and dead carcasses had to go somewhere and the vessels route indicates that the "somewhere" was in the Mediterranean, a special area under MARPOL where carcass disposal is prohibited. 
For details of this disaster, read the AWF Press release here. 

Thought over breakfast:
In 2023, live sheep exports were valued at about $70 million, with nearly 671,000 sheep exported. In 2024, the value dropped to approximately $40.8 million, with only 423,300 sheep exported. 
AND...half a tonne of cocaine dropped off a single live export ship is worth $170 million on the street. 

Well it was no surprise, looking at the date of the drug bust and the photos of the ship involved but the livestock carrier at the centre of the drug bust has now been named by the ABC as the Al Kuwait.
Ironic that whilst VALE was writing to DAFF to alert them to biosecurity issues (confirmed by DAFF), the AFP were getting ready to go over the Al Kuwait for its role in drug dropping. 
Wonder if she'll risk returning to Australia .....could we have witnessed the last sheep ship just slinking off in shame never to return? One can only hope.

The ABC reports that police have charged the chief officer of the international livestock carrier, after half a tonne of cocaine was found floating off Western Australia's coast. Members of the public found the large package tied to a floating drum about 30 km offshore near Lancelin, north of Perth, on November 6: the 525-kilogram parcel of cocaine had a street value of more than $170 million.

According to the West Australian, police were already investigating suspicious activity by an international livestock carrier in the area when the public reported the  discovery. The drugs, were allegedly dumped in the ocean by the livestock carrier while enroute to Fremantle harbour. 

The West Australian states that just one day after the drugs were seized, police charged the 46 yo chief officer of the livestock carrier (a Croatian national), with attempting to import the drug. An AFP spokesperson said when investigators from the joint organised crime taskforce boarded the ship, they allegedly found a blue drum and ropes which were similar to those found with the cocaine. “It will also be alleged examination of the vessel identified that rails had been removed and reinstalled without welding work permits submitted and that a CCTV camera had been covered while the drugs were allegedly offloaded from the ship,” they said.

Definitely not the first time live ex vessels have been caught carrying cocaine (https://www.vale.org.au/blog/drug-trafficking-on-live-ex-ships) with 4.5 tonnes of cocaine seized in Spain in Jan 2023. But....what timing.... with news breaking just 2 days before the live ex conference starts in Perth on 26th Nov. Gold!

See: https://www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/media-release/four-charged-and-about-525kg-cocaine-found-wa-coast 
See: Monday evening article naming the vessel as the Al Kuwait

Fig 1: Police crawling over a livestock vessel in Fremantle - from Australian Border Force image released 24.11.25.
Fig 2: Forensics scrutiny of a livestock vessel with Fremantle feed storage sheds in the background - from Australian Border Force; image released 24.11.25

Marine Link has reported that  52-year-old livestock carrier Spiridon II is now supposedly returning to Uruguay after its cargo of over 2,800 cows was rejected by local authorities in Turkey. The US Sun  has named it a "floating nightmare".

Translated court transcripts  indicate that 58 cows died in transit to Turkey, 140 cows had miscarriages in transit, 50 newborn calves were present on board, but another 90 are unaccounted for. The vessel left  Montevideo (Uruguay) on September 19 with 2,901 heifers; the court’s rejection of an appeal means the Spiridon II crew was unable to disembark the animals and they have to go elsewhere. Additional fodder was loaded onto the upper deck of the Spiridon II on November 9 but this would be unlikely to last the full voyage.

It is indisputable that late-pregnant heifers were loaded on Spiridon II which would raise the question of whether the consignment was delayed, and heifers that were previously confirmed pregnant but not in the third trimester were in third trimester at the time of actual loading. And did some calve, thus had to be substituted for others with the incorrect ear tags? Only the exporter would know. 

VALE has done some calcs for pregnant heifers and compared conditions to ASEL:
Near-term Holstein heifers should weigh about 420-450 kg. The number of unjoined heifers would be unknown but the possible weights have been calculated as 380, 400 and 420.  The minimum pen areas required under ASEL Table 11a are:380 kg - 1.520 m2, 400 kg - 1.668 m2, 420 kg - 1.746 m2.

Spiridon II has a useable pen area of 3,885 m2. With 2,901 cattle loaded, the average pen area per head at loading was 1.339 m2. So, for any of the weight assumptions above, the Spiridon would have been overloaded for ASEL (not that Uruguay would follow ASEL): 380 kg - 14% overloaded; 400 kg - 25% overloaded; 420 kg - 30% overloaded.

Given the voyage length, it is unlikely that much fodder was onboard by the time that authorities allowed the ship in to load some food in Bandirma. Then with the limited time alongside and night-time loading, it is unlikely that more than couple of hundred MT of fodder was loaded. With 2,843 heifers still alive, plus a few calves, and assuming minimum ASEL requirements, at least 27 MT fodder is required daily, or 216 MT since coming alongside in Bandirma. It is hard to believe that there would be much fodder remaining on board and the hay loaded in Bandirma will not provide the dietary energy and protein required by lactating heifers.

In addition to inadequate nutrition, it is not likely that Spiridon II would have the personnel, facilities, equipment or drugs required to provide adequate veterinary care to the pregnant and calving heifers on board. In addition to calving difficulties, acute mastitis would be a real risk with an open teat orifice, dribbling milk and a pen with putrid (if any) bedding.

If this vessel is really going back to Uruguay as indicated on marine sites, it will almost certainly be an unparalleled cattle welfare disaster. 

NOTE: Reportedly 1400 of the cattle have been confirmed to be pregnant. 

The Spiridon 2 debacle has reignited concern about rejection of cattle shipments on arrival in Turkey.

Turkey has some form when it comes to rejecting cattle consignments - and in every case the ending has been bad.

• Elbeik - December 2020, loaded 1,800 bulls in Spain. Rejected on arrival in Turkey because of bluetongue. There was an outbreak of bluetongue in Spain at the time, but not in the area from which the bulls were reported to have come, and no clinical signs of bluetongue in the cattle. Elbeik sailed around the Mediterranean for ten weeks, but a country could not be found to take the cattle. Mortalities steadily increased (not bluetongue) and the ship eventually returned to Spain where the surviving cattle were discharged and euthanased on the wharf.
  
•  Karim Allah - December 2020, loaded 864 young cattle in Spain. Similar history to Elbeik and similar outcome - return to Spain where the surviving cattle were discharged and euthanased on the wharf.
  
• 2024 - Many trucks loaded with cattle held up for days/weeks at the Bulgarian-Turkish border. The death of 69 pregnant dairy heifers from Germany, held in trucks for weeks at the Turkish border was a high-profile exposé by European animal welfare groups.
• 2025 - Spiridion 2.

A consignment of Australian cattle rejected on arrival in Turkey (for whatever reason or lack of reason) would not be able to return to Australia and would have no more chance of finding another country willing to accept the cattle than the Elbeik, Karim Allah or Spiridon 2. DAFF should be watching this space closely...but one could be reasonably certainly they wont! No doubt they have some watertight Memorandum of Understanding...watertight still it starts leaking. 

UPDATE: The 52yo Spiridon II loaded 2,901 cattle in Uruguay, departing on September 19. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry inspected the cattle when the vessel arrived, in Turkey but denied permission to land the animals because a number of the ear tags did not match documentation on the ship. The ship has been permitted to load some food during the standoff but the stats coming out of the Turkish translation thus far appear reportedly show:
- 58 animals died during transport
-140 pregnant animals had abortions during the journey
- 50 newborn calves were seen on board, but 90 more newborn calves are unaccounted for
VALE cannot corroborate this preliminary data without definitive access to the court documents and their translation.