A general cargoship was recently transformed into a modern-day Noah’s Ark, tasked with helping to restock game parks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The Faroe Island-flagged El Nino (built 1989), listed in shipping databases as being a 3,200-dwt refrigerated general cargoship owned by Faroese shipowner All Oceans Logistics, loaded 205 wild animals in the Namibian port of Walvis Bay last week. They were transported to the DRC, where they were released into strictly non-hunting game parks.
The animals, mostly African game such as nyala, eland, impala, hartebeest, oryx and waterbuck, were taken from Namibian game parks and will help repopulate the DRC’s reserves, which have seen their populations severely denuded because of illegal poaching and habitat devastation.
The voyage was organised by Wildlife Vets Namibia, a company that specialises in game capture and translocation. It determined that housing the animals comfortably on a ship was more effective and easier than on lorries, which could have been subject to bureaucratic holdups in the countries they would have to pass through.
And just like in the biblical story of Noah, a team of humans accompanied the animals to ensure they were well looked after during the voyage.
