An environmental catastrophe has been
predicted if authorities fail to deal quickly with the 1500 tonnes of fuel
aboard the container ship stuck hard on Astrolabe Reef.
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| The oil spill from cargo ship Rena. Photo - John Borren |
Tauranga Moana Fisheries Iwi chairman
Brian Dickson feared a "major environmental catastrophe".
"We need to act as quickly as
possible while weather conditions are favourable ... we should not be asking
anyone's permission, we should just fire ahead and do it."
Mr Dickson, chief executive of
Ngaiterangi iwi, feared the outcome could be massive contamination of the Bay of Plenty
coastline, Tauranga
Harbour
"It would have a long-term impact
on the environment."
Mr Dickson said it was much more than
the impact on the mataitai fishery reserve around Mauao - it threatened the
traditional rights of Maori to gather kai moana (seafood) everywhere, including
Motiti Island
Even Astrolabe Reef was a popular
fishing ground for shell fish and fin fish, with Maori gathering a lot of paua,
kina and crayfish around the reef.
Tauranga Green Party candidate Ian
McLean said it was another example of how procedures were meant to be in place
to stop things like this happening, but they still happened. "The risk is
never zero."
He said information always trickled
through slowly and authorities often responded a little bit too slow and a
little too late.
Mr McLean wondered about the capacity
of the oil spill management team to deal with a potential disaster on the scale
of the Rena..
"With this country, you are only
lucky with the weather for a short time. Clearly no one has found a way to get
it off the reef and if it starts breaking up we are in big trouble."
A Tauranga maritime expert, who spoke
on condition he was not identified, has urged authorities dealing with the
stricken ship to put their focus on pumping the oil out of the Rena while the
weather holds.
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| MV Rena leaking oil |
His appeal depends on bringing down the
Ports of Auckland bunker barge Awanuia, which could comfortably take the whole
1700 tonnes.p> "The significant thing is to make sure that poxy oil
does not wash up on the beaches," he said.
The expert said the situation with the
ship looked bad and Maritime New Zealand needed to act now to get the oil off
before winds got up next Monday and Tuesday.
The forecast was for reasonably settled
weather until Monday when north-easterlies develop, freshening to 29km/h to
38km/h - strong enough to create difficult conditions for a ship stuck on
rocks, and with the wind direction blowing an oil slick into shore. Conditions
are expected to worsen on Tuesday, with north-easterlies reaching 39km/h to
49km/h, and gusts possibly reaching 60km/h.
A spokesperson for Z Energy, which
charters Awanuia from Ports of Auckland, told the Bay of Plenty Times
Jonathon Hill said the company was open
to making the vessel available and staff were already thinking but had not
heard from the salvage company.
The Tauranga expert, whose career
included preparing for events like the Rena, said the situation was a major
worry.
Getting weight off the ship would be a
huge problem because a lot of the top rows of containers would be empty whereas
the full ones were further down the stack.
He said Maritime New Zealand had to
think in terms of what was the major risk. "Never mind the ship and the
boxes [containers], the oil is the significant thing - get it off while the
weather is good."
With 20 to 30 knot winds forecasted, he
said Rena would starting grinding around on the reef and anything could happen.
Oil booms would be useless once fuel started coming off the ship in large
quantities in choppy seas.
The Awanuia was a manouverable vessel
which could be put close enough to the vessel with the help of a tug to float
hoses across.
The expert estimated the total
operation would take about 12 hours, with Z Energy saying it would take about a
day for the Awanuia to reach Tauranga.
Source: The Bay
of Plenty
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