Oil washes up on Mt Maunganui beach - Stuff.co.nz
LATEST: Oil from the stricken cargo ship Rena is washing ashore at Mt Maunganui, one of the country's most popular beaches.
The Rena has been stuck on the Astrolabe reef, off the coast of Tauranga, since becoming grounded there in the early hours of Wednesday morning last week.
» Click here for a visualisation of the Rena's fuel load
Residents trying to clear black lumps off the popular beach say they are upset at the seeming lack of an official response.
The public have been warned to stay away from the oil with public health signs being erected along the beach this afternoon.
Tauranga resident Dave Lynn said he was walking his dog north up the beach when he found the oil near Tay Street.
The beach north from there was coated, he said.
He had also found three dead birds on the beach.
"You can see the oil everywhere, the moment you touch it, it's sticky and yuck - it looks like big black rocks," he said.
Lynn had been picking up clumps with plastic bags, then throwing it in the rubbish.
He was frustrated that no official response was evident.
"I'm not happy. Something should have happened already," he said.
His wife said the alarm had been raised with the harbour master and on the region's environment line but no action appeared to have been taken.
"There are still people walking dogs in amongst the oil and there needs to be some immediate action."
OIL PUMPING RESUMING
Crews are this morning due to resume pumping oil off the Rena, in an attempt to beat forecast bad weather.
Crews had been pumping oil from the ship to the tanker vessel Awanuia, as well as transferring fuel from the damaged tank into stable tanks further back in the ship ready to be offloaded, but had to stop work early this morning due to weather conditions.
It is understood 10 tonnes had been removed from the ship so far. There was 1700 tonnes of fuel on the ship.
Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) salvage coordinator Bruce Anderson said about 100 tonnes of oil had leaked from the Rena's breached tank, but oil response teams estimated there was only about 10 tonnes in the sea so far.
The off-loading process is expected to take 30 to 40 hours and could be halted again if the seas get too big today.
MetService had released a severe weather warning for the area, forecasting gales for the Bay of Plenty coast and heavy rain for the region.
A team of 25 salvage experts are on board the vessel, MNZ said.
Heavy equipment, including a Bell helicopter, had been flown into the country in a Boeing 747 jet.
The helicopter had flown on to the site of the spill.
Further heavy equipment had arrived by road.
Defence Force ship HMNZS Endeavour was now in Tauranga and would be used as the command and control centre for the recovery operation.
BRACING FOR IMPACT
Earlier today Transport Minister Steven Joyce said oil was not expected to come on to the beach until later in the week - probably along Papamoa's coastline on Wednesday or Thursday, he said.
Rough weather and nor-east winds forecast for today and tomorrow are predicted to drive the oil onshore.
Papamoa is bounded to the south by the sensitive Maketu wetlands, a home to colonies of threatened New Zealand dotterel and five "critically endangered" fairy terns.
Oil clean-up head Rob Service gave a bleak assessment of the options to contain the oil.
Dispersant was proving "inconclusive", booms were not a suitable option and on-water recovery – scooping up the oil off the water – only removed about 10 per cent of the oil, he said.
"We can't stop the oil reaching the shoreline. That is the reality."
Beach clean-up was not hard but required significant manpower.
He cautioned people in beach areas not to try to clean up the oil themselves because it was toxic and they could make matters worse.
MNZ had 500 people ready as back-up and the Defence Force also had staff available.
WARNING OF REPERCUSSIONS
Prime Minister John Key says he wants answers around why the container ship stranded on a well-documented reef off the coast of Tauranga and has suggested there may be repercussions for the vessel's owners.
Key said this morning there were unanswered questions about why the Rena hit the reef at high speed in calm waters.
"There are two investigations underway so that will hopefully give us the answers to what happened and why," he told TVNZ's Breakfast programme.
"In terms of costs, the ship is insured, so those costs are met by their insurers but ultimately there are other actions which could follow as a result of those inquiries.
"But I wouldn't want to speculate on those at this point."
The Prime Minister visited Tauranga yesterday and said hundreds of people were involved in efforts to stop the oil reaching the shore.
"And there are 500 defence personnel on standby if we need to, for example, go and clean up Papamoa Beach."
Removing the oil from the Rena was a complex operation because the stranding was an unusual incident and visiting international experts were unable to point to similar situation, Key said.
There were about 50 recognised experts in the world and five of them were currently in New Zealand.
"Every year around the world there are ships that get into grief but not ones that usually just plough into an extremely well-documented reef in very calm waters at high speed like this one did."
PACE OF OPERATON DEFENDED
Key defended the time it has take for officials to begin to remove the oil from the Rena, saying it was important the correct procedure was in place.
"We have a plan and that's been part of our master planning at a government level, that plan's been in place for a long time.
"It's from time to time updated and that plan was implemented the moment the Rena hit the Astrolabe Reef."
New Zealand was relying on overseas experts because the international pool in this area was very small, he said.
"The last time when had a major ship have a problem in New Zealand was in 2002, so nearly a decade ago."
The incident was not related to the Government's plans to allow exploration of deep sea mining, Key said.
WARNING OF 'TRAGEDY'
Julian Fitter, of the Maketu Ongatoro Wetlands group, said it would be a tragedy if the wetlands were affected.
Wading birds and migratory birds, including godwits, used the harbour and it would be "really sad if they ended up being killed by the poison from the oil".
A staff member at a Papamoa Beach holiday park said she did not believe authorities had acted fast enough when the ship grounded.
"People pay big money to come and stay by the beach, it's going to ruin a lot of things if it comes ashore."
But local Ross McMillan was happy with the response so far and said it seemed like everything was working to plan.
But he said it was terrible even if oil did not reach the beach because fishing was a popular tourist attraction.
The coming rough weather could jostle the ship and provoke the release of up to another 90 tonnes of oil which has leaked from one of the breached tanks but is still in the ship.
As well as the oil, eight containers on the ship contain hazardous materials.
Four contain ferrosilicone, which produces a flammable gas when it touches water, and the others contain chemicals including a load of hydrogen peroxide.
Salvage crews are on board the Rena and are lashing the containers more securely in preparation for the coming bad weather.
Anderson said that, apart from where the ship had hit the reef, the rest of the ship appeared stable.
Naval architects would monitor the boat during the weather for signs that it was beginning to buckle and possibly break up.
Key flew over the Rena yesterday and appeared angered that the situation had occurred.
The Rena had "ploughed into" the well-known Astrolabe Reef at 17 knots in calm conditions on Wednesday.
There were "serious questions to be answered" and two inquiries had been launched – one by Transport Accident Investigation and one by MNZ.
Joyce said the captain and crew had been interviewed.
Costamare, the parent company of the ship's owners Daina Shipping, put out a media release yesterday saying they were "co-operating fully with local authorities".
- PALOMA MIGONE, IAN STEWARD and DANYA LEVY
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