ENVIRONMENTALISTS in New Zealand warned yesterday of a looming marine disaster as an oil spill from a grounded container ship continued to spread, threatening wildlife including whales, seals and penguins.
At least four seabirds have been found dead in the waters around the 236m-long Rena, which ran aground on the Astrolabe reef, 12 nautical miles off Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty, on Tuesday. Others, including a little blue penguin, have been seen covered in oil on the water nearby and there are fears the slick could move towards the fragile environment of the nearby Mayor Island marine reserve.
Nick Smith, the Environment Minister, said the spill, which is now 6km long, “has the potential to be New Zealand’s most significant marine pollution disaster in decades”.
Andrew Berry, the pollution response service manager of Maritime New Zealand, told NZ radio: “(The grounding) has the potential to be very, very serious indeed, because of the age of the ship, the damage that she’s sustained and the 1700 tonnes of oil on board.”
The Bay of Plenty, which stretches 240km down the east coast of the North Island, is one of the country’s most popular tourist spots. Named by Captain Cook for its rich vegetation, the bay’s abundant ocean life has made it a popular spot for diving enthusiasts and game fishermen. It is also on the whale migration route, and a blue whale and her calf were seen in the area last week, raising fears that they could be put at risk.
Graeme Butler, who runs an eco-tourism whale and dolphin watching charter, said the oil spill into the bay’s pristine waters was larger than the official estimate and was already a disaster. “I would say the official estimate of 6km is a conservative one,” he said. “This is a shocking disaster.”
Mr Butler added. “It could not have happened at a worse time, coming into spring and the breeding seasons.
“It is already a disaster for the Astrolabe reef and will only get worse. It’s hideous to think of the impact on the sea life. This is the most common time to see blue whales and there are lots of minke whales about at this time, too. The idea of them having to compete for space with an oil slick doesn’t thrill me. This is going to have a significant impact for years.”
Preparations for an on-water oil recovery operation involving the use of specialist equipment including booms to scoop the oil off the surface, began yesterday after early efforts to disperse the oil appeared to be unsuccessful. However, fears are growing that the ship could break in two in heavy weather, leading to a catastrophic release of oil.
John Riding, a marine expert from Marico Marine, said the ship had moved slightly and was highly likely to break up. “I truly doubt that she will float if she breaks in two and unfortunately that is a real scenario, given that she is laden,” he said, adding that bad weather and heavy swells forecast for the coming week could prove disastrous unless the fuel was taken off now.
If the ship broke up, it could affect the entire east coast of the North Island, he said.
Maritime NZ has 100 staff in the area monitoring the situation while specialist equipment is being brought in from Australia and elsewhere in NZ. Experts, including a naval architect from The Netherlands, are on board, and looking at ways to remove the oil and stabilise the ship.
However, Steven Joyce, the Transport Minister, admitted that the operation to disperse the oil and salvage the ship was “very complex and difficult”. He told reporters: “I would not choose to start from the position these people have found themselves in.”
He told The New Zealand Herald: “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.”
Rena was declared a hazardous ship yesterday as the slick doubled in size in a few hours. Rob Service, an on-site controller for Maritime NZ, said oil was still leaking intermittently from the Liberian-flagged vessel, apparently from pipes damaged when it hit the reef. However, he said there was no sign yet that a large amount of oil had been released into the sea.
Environmentalists criticised the official response for being too slow. “We are very concerned to see this incident inexorably moving into a full-scale environmental disaster,” said Gary Taylor, chairman of the Environmental Defence Society, one of the country’s leading ecology groups.
Karen Baird from the animal welfare organisation Forest and Bird said scores of birds were at risk from the spill including penguins, terns, gulls and gannets. “Landing in the oil slick is a death sentence for these birds,” she said.
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One of the birds was a swan.
“Landing in the oil slick is a death sentence for these birds,” she said.
Then the birds should not land in the slick. Stupid birds.