Spiridon II – Press release n°2
The Spiridon II, 52 years old, flying the Togolese flag, left Montevideo, Uruguay, on September 19 with her live “goods”, arrived off the coast of Bandirma, Türkiye, on October 22, was quarantined for 23 days, and then set sail again for Montevideo with her “cargo”. She is scheduled to arrive in mid-December.
Marine Traffic screenshot, November 17, 2025, 4:00 p.m.
The Spiridon II had been exceptionally allowed into the port of Bandirma on November 9 to take on additional fodder.
In terms of duration, the journey of the Spiridon II will equal that of the Elbeik (92 days), which left Tarragona in December 2020 and returned to Cartagena in Spain with more than 1,000 calves whose landing had been denied into all countries in the eastern Mediterranean.
On the other hand, the Holstein heifers from the Uruguayan herd will break the world record for the longest race off solid ground. On their return home, they may face formidable storms in the North Atlantic Ocean. Millions of head of cattle are transported by sea every year, but few zoologists have looked at whether they are susceptible to seasickness. The rare studies available suggest that they are, just like sheep, horses, dogs and cats.
In any case, they are poor swimmers and have little chance of survival after shipwrecks or capsizing, especially since most of them remain trapped in their pens and in the hull.
In October 2015, the livestock carrier Haidar, a newly converted container ship, is at berth in Barcarena in the mouth of the Para River (Brazil). She sinks, along with of 5,000 cattle destined for Venezuela. Most of the animals drown. The carcasses rot in the ship’s boxes and on the banks where they were swept away. 700 tonnes of fuel are spilled into the river. The management of the health and environmental crisis is a failure.
In November 2019, 14,000 sheep destined for Saudi Arabia drowned after the Queen Hind, a former car carrier converted into a livestock carrier, capsized 500 metres from the port of Midia, Romania.
In September 2020, off the coast of Japan, 42 sailors and 5,687 cows travelling from New Zealand to China drowned after the Gulf Livestock 1 capsized in a typhoon.
The NGO Robin des Bois has been on alert about the tragic issue of live animal sea transport since the Uniceb blaze in the Indian Ocean in 1996. She had departed from Fremantle, Australia, and was bound for Aqaba, Jordan. 67,000 sheep died of asphyxiation and carbonization after the ship was abandoned by her multinational crew.
To find out more about the transport of live cattle by sea:
– Uniceb: “La Flèche” n°28 p.17, winter 1996 (only in French)
– “Ezadeen, the livestock and migrant carrier”, January 2, 2015
– Haidar: “Shipbreaking” #41 p. 6-7, #43 p. 2-3 and #49 p. 6
– Queen Hind: “Midia, Roumanie. Noyade de plus de 14.000 moutons” (Midia, Romania: more than 14,000 sheep drowned), November 19, 2019 (only in French)
– Gulf Livestock 1: “42 marins et 5867 vaches périssent en mer” (42 sailors and 5,867 cows perish at sea), September 4, 2020 (only in French)
– Elbeik:
“E.U Cattle in hot water”, March 2, 2021
“E.U Cattle in deep waters”, March 8, 2021
” Le tour de la Med en 92 jours et 12.000 km” (Around the Med in 92 days and 12,000 km), March 19, 2021 (only in French)
– Spiridon II: “Livestock carriers: 2,901 cows in distress”, November 12, 2025
Imprimer cet article
