Rough seas over the weekend caused more oil to be spilled
Exactly two months after the cargo ship Rena ran aground on a reef off New Zealand, causing the country’s worst ever maritime environment disaster, authorities launched a new oil spill alert on Monday.
The state Maritime New Zealand agency, which is overseeing salvage of the vessel, said rough seas over the weekend caused more oil to be spilled and ‘sticky tar balls’ could be washed up on beaches.
The Rena spilled about 360 tons of heavy fuel oil after it hit the reef, 22 kilometres off the east coast port of Tauranga on October 5. The spill killed more than 2,000 seabirds and another 550 oil-contaminated birds and little blue penguins were caught and cleaned up at a temporary wildlife facility.
Most of the oil left on the ship has been pumped off, but the spill fouled some of the North Island’s finest beaches and clean-up squads have collected nearly 1,000 tons of contaminated sand.
A Maritime New Zealand statement said the release of ‘a small amount of weathered oil’ from under the wreck on Saturday night could result in ‘some light oiling’ reaching a 16-kilometre stretch of beach, and clean-up crews were being deployed to mop it up.
Bad weather over the weekend stopped the operation to remove more than 1,100 containers of goods still on the ship, and the statement said work was unlikely to resume in the next day or so.
A crane barge, the Smit Borneo, was scheduled to arrive Monday from Singapore to help unload the remaining containers on the ship, which is cracked nearly in two and listing at about 21 degrees on the reef.
Source: M&C