Oil spill
October 10, 2011
Oil from a cargo ship stranded on a reef off the New Zealand coastline began washing up on beaches Monday.
Maritime New Zealand said the oil from the container ship, Rena, was found on Mount Maunganui beach, one of the country's most popular tourist destinations. The pollution has also reached Matakan Island, a nesting site for seabirds. Officials closed the affected beaches and warned people to avoid the oil.
Transport Minister Steven Joyce said about 100 tons of heavy fuel oil has leaked from the ship's tanks and up to half of it could have drained into the sea, with the rest lying in the damaged keel.
"We are expecting more oil to come onto the beach over the next few days," he said.
Salvage workers have been hampered by bad weather, which interrupted their efforts to remove some 1,700 of oil and 200 tons of diesel fuel from the vessel. The ship has been stuck on the reef since last Wednesday, some 22 kilometers (14 miles) off shore.
Seaworthy?
Joyce said experts had assured him that the ship was "holding together quite well" and not in immediate danger of breaking up, although its hull had been breached in several places.
The race is now on to get the oil off the ship and avoid an environmental disaster before strong winds hamper the operation. The salvage team said it needed at least two days of uninterrupted pumping to clear the ship.
Some 250 people, including specialists from Australia, Britain, the Netherlands and Singapore, have joined the response team, with 300 defense personnel on standby to help with the shoreline cleanup.
Questions are now turning to the condition of the Liberian-registered ship when it set sail. The Maritime Union has claimed that an inspection of the 21-year-old Rena by authorities last month had revealed multiple deficiencies, including problems with the charts.
Joyce refused to comment on that allegation, saying investigations were under way that would examine what caused the accident.
On Sunday, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key visited the area and demanded answers.
"This is a ship that's plowed into a well-documented reef in calm waters in the middle of the night at 17 knots. So somebody needs to tell us why that's happened," he told reporters.
Author: Joanna Impey (AFP, AP, Reuters)
Editor: Martin Kuebler