MV Rena salvors brace for break-up

January 6 (NZH) – The Rena is set to be battered this weekend by some of the largest sea swells to hit the cargo ship since it grounded on the Astrolabe Reef on October 5. However officials are confident they have plans to deal with the worst-case scenario of the ship breaking up, and crews […]

Russia oil spills wreak devastation – ‘Fishing, hunting – it’s all gone’

By Nataliya Vasilyeva, AP Business Writer 17 December 2011 USINSK, Russia – On the bright yellow tundra outside this oil town near the Arctic Circle, a pitch-black pool of crude stretches toward the horizon. The source: a decommissioned well whose rusty screws ooze with oil, viscous like jam. This is the face of Russia’s oil […]

Video: Cleaned penguins released after New Zealand oil spill disaster

[The penguins are released at about 1:00.] The first of the little blue penguins, cleaned and recovered after the Rena oil spill, are released back to their home shores. Interview with lead vet at the National Oiled Wildlife Recovery Team. (C) WWF-New Zealand / Amy Taylor WWF film of NZ penguin release post oil-spill Technorati […]

Fury as UK minister delays marine protection

By Lewis Smith15 November 2011 The government has been accused of failing the environment after announcing delays to the creation of marine reserves. Conservation groups responded angrily to the announcement by environment minister Richard Benyon that the internationally agreed deadline for creating marine protected areas will be missed. They accused the government of changing the […]

New Zealand crews pump all oil from stranded ship – Clean-up to take months

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, November 13 (AP) – Salvage crews have successfully removed all the remaining oil from a cargo ship that ran aground on a New Zealand reef, avoiding a worse environmental disaster. The vessel Rena grounded on the Astrolabe reef near Tauranga on Oct. 5 and authorities feared the worst as about 385 tons […]

MV Rena cargo to be removed soon, 100 more hours to pump out oil

By Arlene Paredes10 November 2011 Locating devices called “pingers” have been fastened to cargoes aboard the ill-fated MV Rena as the salvage team moves to finish pumping oil off the grounded cargo vessel. It has been more than a month since the Rena accidentally hit a reef and got wedged in, crippling the vessel, and […]

‘Difficult and dangerous’ procedure to remove oil from stranded cargo ship

November 07 (AAP) – New Zealand salvage experts are pumping seawater into the Rena’s hard-to-reach tank in a difficult and dangerous technique to finally rid the stricken ship of oil. The estimated 358 tonnes of heavy fuel oil remaining in the ship’s submerged starboard tank will be pumped out through three tonnes of hoses laid […]

MV Rena update: Cargo vessel remains intact in bad weather – Fresh charges filed against Filipino captain

By Anne Witter2 November 2011 MV Rena remains intact despite water swelling in the Bay of Plenty where it is still wedged in on Astrolabe Reef as bad weather persisted in the area, bringing swells of up to 5m. Officials have feared that the recent bout of bad weather could finally break Rena in half, and […]

Rena oil pumping passes halfway mark – Nearly 1400 birds found dead so far

October 26 (Big Pond) – New Zealand salvage crews have passed the halfway mark in pumping oil from the stranded and broken ship Rena, but are warning they still face a Herculean task to get the rest out. There was around 1700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil on Rena when it grounded on the Astrolabe […]

Image of the Day: Still Life in Oil

By Jonathan Amos, Science correspondent, BBC News 19 October 2011 It is a picture that seems at first to be quite beautiful. Only as the eye lingers do you fully realise its shocking context. This image of brown pelicans smothered in oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill has earned Daniel Beltrá the title of Veolia […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial