Video: More oil leaks from stricken container ship
October 19 (Sky News) – More oil has leaked from the stricken container ship the Rena after the boat was battered by poor weather off the New Zealand north coast. Maritime New Zealand says a small amount of oil was released from the bow of the vessel on Tuesday morning, and a light sheen of oil is moving out to sea. The poor weather had halted efforts to pump oil from the boat, which has been stuck since running aground at Astrolabe reef on October 5. About 90 tonnes had been removed from the crippled vessel since pumping began on Sunday. The ship had belched about 350 tonnes of oil into the water before Tuesday. Maritime New Zealand also called off volunteer clean-ups of local beaches because of poor weather. The weather may also cancel Wednesday’s clean-up efforts, it said. On Monday 350 volunteers gathered 53 tonnes of waste – 744 tonnes of waste has been collected so far. Meanwhile, wildlife field operations coordinator Dr Brent Stephenson said they had now managed to catch 46 rare New Zealand dotterels, just 14 short of its target for the pre-emptive capture to help the population survive. ‘It is extremely important that these precious birds are only handled by our team of trained wildlife experts,’ Dr Stephenson said. He said collection locations in the wider Whakatane area have been set up to take wildlife in the event of oil landing in these areas. So far 1290 birds and four animals have been found dead, while 207 birds are being cared for at the Wildlife Centre in Tauranga. Despite the poor weather, salvage company Svitzer is hoping to resume pumping oil from the ship as soon as it can. Svitzer’s Matthew Watson told Radio New Zealand it was ‘utterly frustrating’ to have moved such a small fraction of the oil on board, but they had to put safety first.
