Oil spill declared NZ's worst in history.

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Oil spill declared NZ's worst in history


The oil spill from the shipwrecked Rena off New Zealand has now been declared the country's biggest maritime environmental disaster, as a further 300 tonnes of oil leaked from the stricken vessel on Tuesday.

Fist-sized 'patties' of oil first washed ashore on Monday, five days after the 236m Liberian-flagged container ship ran aground Astrolabe Reef 12 nautical miles off the coast of Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty.

Maritime New Zealand salvage unit manager Bruce Anderson says a storm on Monday night damaged the ship by causing it to move on the rocks.

MNZ estimates this damage caused 200-300 tonnes of oil to leak into the sea and is due to wash ashore on beaches and islands from Wednesday morning.

Environment Minister Nick Smith says the oil spill was inevitable and the clean-up could take weeks.

'I want to acknowledge that this event has come to a scale where it is New Zealand's most significant maritime environmental maritime disaster,' he said on Tuesday.

'The advice I'm receiving is that the amount of oil is five-fold what was released in earlier periods.

'This operation is going to be a marathon, not a sprint.'

The Rena's list has worsened to about 18 degrees to starboard, MNZ said in a statement.

'This is a visual estimate from a tug that was standing off the aft of the Rena.'

Maritime New Zealand national on-scene commander Nick Quinn said significant amounts of oil was set to come ashore in the next 24 to 48 hours between Mount Maunganui and Maketu, and there were 'days to potentially weeks of effort we're going to be involved with'.

The clean-up of polluted Mount Maunganui beaches began on Tuesday and will continue on Wednesday with teams to be helped by 100 New Zealand Defence Force personnel.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce said the cost of recovery was already into the millions.

He said the government could grant extra funding for the recovery but it hadn't got to that stage yet.

All the Rena crew were evacuated earlier on Tuesday.

A navy sailor hurt during the evacuation of the stricken ship Rena off the coast of Tauranga has been taken to hospital.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• oilspill
• Rena
• Tauranga

[theCONtraildotcom]

fucking COREXIT wont fix it!!!

[ZeppelinKitty]

And they want to ship nuke waste through our Great Lakes in Canada....assholes.

[ajcraig99]

oil tankers should undergo strict maintenance checks just like aircraft do. or do they already do that?

[Legendliveon]

What a bunch of fucking idiot's,Why take crew of it.I would have left them there to teach them not to do it again.Third mishap in one year for NZ.First Pike River Mine,Then Christchurch now this.What next...

[Hannamira]

Corexit. Have a look on Nobody Has To Die Tomorrow.com, the makers of this toxic shit are going to be sued for what they have done to the Gulf. Who would have thought that our local "powers that be" wether it is the goverment or osh or both, would allow the use of this deadly substance in our beautiful country. But on the other hand, looking at their response time to this maritime disaster and the total mismanagment of the Christchurch earthquakes, who would be suprised. Vote carefully this year

[haze8988]

fukn leave ur helicopters there with that crap in it wat the hell r u dum bastards thinkg

[BadGirl99721]

Lack of planning = No Response

specialized response ship for collecting oil should have been there. As request by the Greens and the Maritime safety last year!

[Scooternz]

kiwis are Ignorant

Deregulation can be blamed!

The Government should have invested in a specialized response ship , the Greens and the Maritime Union requested!

Clean Green my ass!

[smiles1969able]

its lucky it IS being washed up on the beach atleast it can be picked up then.. well except for the oil that has been sprayed in corexit. corexit is going to kill everything below the surface down to any depth thats what it was designed for, also the oil sprayed with corexit can get evaporated into the air and then rained down on your vegetables.. corexit is Not your friend.. dont wait for somone else to pick up the crap because it will take forever