Long process
to remove oil and shift stricken container vessel
Oil spilled from a stricken container
ship off the Tauranga coastline has started washing up on shore at Mt Maunganui,
reports say.
The Bay
of Plenty Times said its reporters had
spotted oil from the Rena, which is stranded on the Astrolabe Reef, on the Mount Main Beach near Leisure
Island
A photographer described the oil as "thick
in consistency'' and in clumps.
Many people were out on the beach
looking at the oil, he said.
Earlier bad weather halted efforts to
pump 1700 tonnes of oil from the stricken container ship.
Crews aboard the barge 'Awanui' had
pumped 10 tonnes of oil from the Rena since 8:30pm last night.
They were called off this morning due
to safety concerns amid "changing weather conditions" at the reef.
Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) said the
urgent salvage operation had to be stopped if there were any fears for the
safety of the 25-strong salvage team on board Rena.
It said the salvage operation at the
Rena was urgent and said the crews were looking to resume pumping soon.
"This is an incredibly quick
response for a salvage operation.
"The safety of the salvage team
and crew remains paramount. If conditions worsen we will temporarily stop the
operation until it's safe to resume. Until then they will continue to pump fuel
off the vessel for as long as it's safe to work."
 |
| Oil spilled from MV Rena |
The salvage operation would likely
begin again later today - and would carry on "around the clock", Maritime
New Zealand said.
Oil needed to be transferred from the
ship urgently because forecasts were for more bad weather in the coming days, it
said.
"The weather is expected to
deteriorate in the coming days, so we are working around the clock to remove
the oil. The weather will impact on both the salvage and oil recovery effort."
MetService has issued a severe weather
watch for the Bay
of Plenty
Forecasts issued to MNZ predicted
increasing north-easterly winds impacting its salvage operations in the coming
days.
Transport Minister Steven Joyce said
the effort to remove oil from the MV Rena before it causes an ecological
catastrophe is likely to take a long time.
"Assuming we're able to get the
oil off in a certain time, I've heard weeks and even months in terms of the
salvage of the containers and the ship - it's going to be a fair bit of work
over a long period of time," he told the Herald.
Prime Minister John Key said his advice
was that oil would start arriving on Bay
of Plenty
People were being advised not to
collect seafood.
He has joined Mr Joyce and a growing
chorus of others demanding to know how the Rena struck the wildlife-rich
Astrolabe Reef early last Wednesday morning.
"I think the first thing you'd
have to say is this is a very large ship that, in calm waters, has hit a well-documented
reef," Mr Key said.
"So some serious questions need to
be asked about why that happened and who is responsible, and there are two
inquiries under way to get those answers.
"Obviously the Government is very
keen to understand how such a catastrophe could take place."
The three crew members on duty at the
time were being spoken to.
There was less oil visible on the water
than seen previously, although the situation was likely to worsen with winds
picking up over coming days.
Boats were using a large skimmer to
scoop up the oil last night.
Maritime New Zealand
An oil-coated little blue penguin
yesterday became the ninth seabird to be recovered and processed at the oiled
wildlife response centre - a base of tents, tanks and makeshift laboratories
set up at Mt Maunganui capable of taking up to 500 birds.
The little bird appeared back to its
lively self after it was dropped in a pool and began happily swimming around, delighting
Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson and photographers.
Co-ordinator Kerri Morgan expected to
see many more cases of affected wildlife. Two hundred volunteers were standing
by to help.
Brett Gartrell, Massey University's
Wildlife Facility Director, told Newstalk ZB there is no way to tell how many
more birds could be affected, but they have experts on standby to deal with up
to a thousand.
He said 10,000 Grey Faced Petrels are
in one area near the Rena, and thousands of Diving Petrels in another. There
are also between 200 and 300 Little Blue Penguins around the area.
Mr Gartrell said they are able to get a
projection of where the oil is headed, so they all scare the birds away from
those areas.
"One is to just be having lots of
boats and people and activity there but we also use things like air horns and
whistling tape that we put up that moves in the wind and gives off a high pitch
whistling noise."
He said as for marine mammals like
dolphins, they can put sonic devices in the water to make noises to get them
away.
The team dealing with the salvage, led
by Dutch specialists Svitzer, had 250 workers.
Two more barges to recover heavy fuel
oil in the water were on their way.
The New Zealand Defence Force has
provided specialist staff, two shore patrol vessels, Seasprite and Iroquois
helicopters, a C-130 Hercules sent to pick up equipment from Australia
A further 300 army staff were on stand-by.
Mr Key rejected criticism over response
efforts by environmental groups, the Green Party and Labour, who are calling on
the Government to take over.
"We've had a plan, it has been
activated and mobilised, and all I can say is that I asked international
experts whether we were acting quickly enough and if there was anything else we
could do - and the assurance I've been given is it's relative to other
accidents around the world and we've been acting very quickly."
FOUR OPTIONS
1. Dispersant:
The chemical Corexit 9500, used to
tackle BP's disastrous spill in the Gulf of Mexico
last year, is being sprayed to break up the black oil. But it is not clear
whether it is working, and international experts are measuring the results.
2. On-Water Recovery:
Scooping up oil from the water, also
being tried, is a weather dependent and largely ineffective approach. In most
instances, less than 10 per cent of the oil is recovered.
3. Protection Booms:
Many are asking why booms aren't being
used to ring-fence the leaked oil. But conditions such as strong currents, deep
water and wave action have made it impossible to use them.
4. Shoreline Clean-Up:
The least preferred - but ultimately
inevitable - option, with oil due at Papamoa
Beach
Source: The NZ Herald. By Newstalk ZB, APNZ and NZ Herald staff.
10 October 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment