Independent observer report nothing to crow about!!!

Whilst everyone in industry and government seem to be patting themselves on the back for the first independent observer report from a low mortality northern summer voyage, they seem to have overlooked what this report actually said.

This was a small relatively modern ship with a small number of sheep (9227) given an extra 17.5% space allowance above ASEL. It sailed in June 2018 from Fremantle to Haifa.

Despite the extra space, ALL the sheep had heat stress continuously from the Equator to the Suez Canal (about 10 days for most ships) with one afternoon of Panting Score 3 on all decks. McCarthy said the HSRA should be redesigned such that there was only a 2% probability that 5% of sheep would have heat stress. Well it looks to have been 100% on this ship and it occurred despite the increased space.

VALE have long maintained that winter-acclimatised sheep should not be sent to the northern summer. The Australian Veterinary Association made a recommendation that no amount of space could prevent heat stress in the ME summer and recommended that sheep not sail 1 May to 31 October. 

So here we are...everyone patting themselves on the back about a voyage with very serious morbidity and a heat stress incident. THEY STILL DONT GET IT!!!!