Break up fears for New Zealand oil slick ship

  
New Zealand said it was preparing for an environmental disaster Friday as a container ship stranded off the North Island threatened to break up and spill oil into the pristine Bay of Plenty.


The 47,000 tonne container vessel "Rena", which hit a reef off the coast of Tauranga earlier this week, has already created an oil slick more than five-kilometres (three miles) long that has killed a number of seabirds.

But the pollution would be far worse if the ship broke up on the Astrolabe Reef, releasing the 1,700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil on board into a marine environment that is home to whales, dolphins, seals and penguins.

Environment Minister Nick Smith told Fairfax Media the accident "has the potential to be New Zealand's most significant maritime pollution disaster in decades".

©Maritime New Zealand

Break up fears for New Zealand oil slick ship Duration: 01:00

Transport Minister Steven Joyce said salvage teams were scrambling to remove oil from the stricken vessel to protect the Bay of Plenty, one of the country's top tourist destinations.

"The difficulty is that the situation is deteriorating and according to the advice I've received, there's the possibility it could break up and sink," Joyce told the New Zealand Herald.

"It's certainly serious, what's going on there. They're certainly moving as fast as they can. It's been a bit frustrating for everybody in terms of getting the right equipment to achieve the removal of the oil and containers."

Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) said it was preparing for the possibility the existing oil slick would hit the coast in the coming days after dispersants sprayed from aircraft proved ineffective.

           
Animal welfare activists said marine birdlife are at risk from an oil spill off New Zealand's North Island

"It has the potential to be very, very serious indeed simply because of the age of the ship, the damage that she's sustained and the 1,700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil on board," MNZ pollution response manager Andrew Berry told Radio New Zealand.

The weather in the Bay of Plenty is forecast to deteriorate early next week, giving added urgency to efforts to remove the oil in case the ship breaks apart in heavy swells.

"The worst-case scenario is a significant shoreline impact, which is why we have teams on standby," MNZ on-site controller Rob Service said.

The agency found four dead birds in the slick on Thursday and dispatched wildlife rescue teams Friday to scour Bay of Plenty beaches looking for oil-covered animals and birds.

New Zealand oil spill

It said two wildlife rescue centres had been set up but could not confirm reports that seals had been seen covered in oil.

Animal welfare group Forest and Bird said species of marine birdlife at risk from the spill included blue penguins, shearwaters, gannets and petrels.

The group's seabird specialist, Karen Baird, said the timing of the accident, in the midst of breeding season, was "disastrous".

"Many of them are sitting on eggs and some of them have got chicks that are starting to hatch, so that's a big worry for us," she told 3News.

It is not known why the ship ran aground in the early hours of Wednesday morning. None of the 25-man crew was injured in the accident.