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Permalink Reply by Vlada Mikahl Schoon on October 11, 2011 at 5:25pm

I found this on Huff Post World http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/11/new-zealand-oil-spill_n_10...



TAURANGA, New Zealand -- Rough weather has jostled a cargo ship stuck off New Zealand's coast and worsened its oil leak fivefold to make it the country's worst-ever maritime environmental disaster, the government said Tuesday.



Clumps of heavy oil from the Liberia-flagged Rena have washed up on pristine beaches near Tauranga on New Zealand's North Island, and environmental officials said 53 birds were found dead and 17 were getting emergency treatment to remove oil from their feathers.



"This event has come to a scale where it is New Zealand's most significant environmental maritime disaster," Environment Minister Nick Smith told reporters in Tauranga, adding that the clean-up would take weeks.



The ship has been foundering since it ran aground Oct. 5 on the Astrolabe Reef, about 14 miles (22 kilometers) from Tauranga Harbour, and the government has demanded to know why the ship crashed into the well-charted reef in calm weather. The ship owner has given no reason for the grounding, but says it is cooperating with authorities.



Rough weather in recent days has kept salvage crews away.



Late Monday, the 775-foot (236-meter) ship shifted significantly, spilling hundreds of tons of oil from an unidentified rupture in the hull, said Nick Bohm, a spokesman for Maritime New Zealand which is managing the emergency response.



Up to 390 tons (350 metric tons) of heavy fuel oil spilled from the hull Tuesday, a rate about five times worse than during the initial days of the spill, Smith said. Officials believe that the ship had about 1,870 tons (1,700 metric tons) of oil and 220 tons (200 metric tons) of diesel on board before it started leaking.



Bohm said a salvage crew had to be removed from the ship late Tuesday morning because ocean swells of 7-to-10 feet (2-to-3 meters) made conditions too dangerous. The swells were expected to increase as high as 16 feet (5 meters), he said.



Without the salvage crew aboard, oil cannot be pumped out of the ship.



"We're on standby at the moment and we'll see what's happening with the ship and they'll be redeployed as quickly as possible," Bohm said of the salvage crew.



"We're not saying it's going to break up yet; we're not convinced," he added, referring to the ship.



Divers are scheduled to inspect damage to the hull on Wednesday, Bohm said.



Maritime New Zealand said in a statement that a beach clean up began early Tuesday and that more teams would be deployed on Wednesday when oil is expected to reach the shore in greater quantities.



"A significant amount of oil is expected to come ashore in the next days," the statement said.



Rescue teams were also searching the shore for more wildlife affected by the oil.



Jen Riches, an official with WWF-New Zealand at Tauranga, said her environmental group is concerned over the fate of fur seals as well as birds such as the endangered New Zealand dotterel.



"If they don't manage to get that oil off and it ends up in the ocean, then that's going to be a disaster for marine wildlife, for people and for New Zealand," she said.



Marine crews began an operation Sunday to extract up to 1,900 tons (1,700 metric tons) of heavy fuel oil from the stricken ship – the equivalent of about 10,700 barrels. But they had to halt the pumping Monday after managing to remove just 11 tons (10 metric tons).



In a statement, the owners of the ship, Greece-based Costamare Inc., said they were "cooperating fully with local authorities" and were making every effort to "control and minimize the environmental consequences of this incident." The company did not offer any explanation for the grounding.



The Rena was built in 1990 and was carrying 1,351 containers of goods when it ran aground, according to the owners.



In addition to the oil, authorities are also concerned about some potentially dangerous goods aboard, including four containers of ferrosilicon. Authorities said removing those goods was a priority.







This has been posted all on Facebook and several other sites..


New Zealand Oil Spill Seen as Potential Environmental Catastrophe

link to site & article

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20111011/new-zealand-oil-spill-ta...









Oil leaking into the sea off the Tauranga coast has increased by as much as ten-fold, raising fears that New Zealand could face an environmental crisis.

By Toby Manhire, Guardian

AUCKLAND, New Zealand—Fears that New Zealand could face a large-scale environmental crisis have escalated as the oil leaking from the container ship Rena into the sea off the Tauranga coast increased by as much as ten-fold.

The news came as the vessel's remaining crew were evacuated following a mayday alarm amid heavy swells.

The New Zealand environment minister, Nick Smith, said the fresh release of oil into the sea meant the Rena spill was the country's most serious ever maritime environmental disaster.

Speaking at a media conference on Tuesday afternoon, he said the consequences had been "inevitable" since the ship ploughed into the Astrolabe reef in calm waters in the North Island Bay of Plenty last Wednesday morning.

A new rupture to one of the ship's main fuel tanks released between 130 and 350 tons of heavy oil into the water, according to officials who conducted a flyover of the freighter. More than 1,600 tons of fuel remain aboard. The fresh damage was caused after the ship's hull dragged in heavy winds and swells of up to four meters.

The continuing movement of the hull has raised fears that the 47,000-ton vessel could break up, triggering an environmental and ecological catastrophe. The mayday alarm and evacuation by helicopter of the remaining crew early on Wednesday added to speculation that the vessel might be close to fracture.

Salvage operator Maritime New Zealand was quick to state, however, that the operation was a "standard precautionary measure," expedited by weather conditions, and there remained "no obvious signs of deformation."

The list of the vessel had in fact corrected from 11 degrees to between three and six degrees, meaning that "the containers have become more stable, as they are now more upright," it said in a statement.

Shortly before 7pm on Tuesday evening, however, the ship tilted again in heavy seas, leaving it listing 15 degrees to starboard, accordingly to a report on TV3 News.

The Rena is carrying 1,368 shipping containers, of which at least 22 contain hazardous goods, according to the transport minister, Steve Joyce.

Officials have reiterated their instruction for locals to avoid visiting the coastline, where oil has been surfacing since Monday afternoon. A team of about 100 people has begun to clean up the oil from the popular swimming beach at Mount Maunganui, but the current are expected to push the slick at least as far south as Maketu, 20 miles down the coast from Mount Maunganui.

Salvage teams suspended the pumping of fuel from the stricken vessel just hours after they began on Tuesday in the face of deteriorating weather, but hope to resume the operation in the coming days, with forecasts suggesting milder conditions.

The salvage plan entails three phases: the removal of oil, followed by the removal of containers and finally the flotation of the vessel itself. The operation is expected to last many months.

A number of concerns have been raised about the seaworthiness of the Rena. The New Zealand Maritime Union has claimed the vessel's problems may have included incorrect charts, while Joyce has confirmed that deficiencies had been identified by inspectors in China in July, and again last month in Australia. Maritime New Zealand had inspected the ship at Bluff, in the south island, however, and passed it fit for sail.

The Greece-based owners of the ship, Costamare Inc, said in a statement they were "cooperating fully with local authorities and every effort is being made to control and minimise the environmental consequences of this incident."

*Republished with permission.
Oct 11, 2011

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Permalink Reply by Vlada Mikahl Schoon on October 11, 2011 at 5:26pm

Latest info this morning on our news is that Maritime will be prosecuting the Captain for this under Maritime law.. that 17 containers are now over board and have washed up on the island nearby, this made the ship lean more to the left to were it was yesterday,clean up is under way by local community as well as official environmentalist companies.There is concern of oil washing up into rivers,and will be washing up on beaches up the coast for weeks, its heading North on high swells towards Makatu & Pukahina sand spit were it could effect the protected spotted Dotteral colony,some penguin & bird life have already died.and environmentalists are cleaning others.^V^

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