Oil Spill : Rena likely to split apart on New Zealand reef

 

A disaster is quite possibly revealing itself off Tauranga’s coast – my home town. The ‘Bay of Plenty Times’ has the latest.  

Large fractures in the hull of the stricken cargo ship Rena are getting worse, increasing the chances the ship will break up.

Aerial footage taken by TVNZ shows the hull of the vessel has cracked open.

Prime Minister John Key this afternoon said on Wednesday the substantial fractures in the vessel made it much more likely to break up on the reef.

He defended the amount of time it had taken the Government to respond to the disaster, saying the operation had been carried out as swiftly as possible.

“I can understand people wanting to believe that this could be fixed more quickly. But the Government doesn’t hold a magic wand …

“We are moving as quickly as we can.”

Salvage team captain John Walker said the condition of the ship was deteriorating.

Three tugboats were ready to head to the Rena to try to pump more oil out of it if weather conditions allowed, he said.

A Maritime New Zealand spokesman said it was possible a fuel tank could be ruptured if the Rena broke up – allowing more oil to leak into the sea.

However, salvage teams had capped the tanks before leaving the vessel and it was possible no more oil would escape, he said.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2011/10/09/new-zealand-ship-risks-oil-spill.html

http://www.bayofplentytimes.co.nz/news/rena-oil-spill-latest-updates-13102011/1136045/

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• NZ Politics Daily – 13 October (liberation.typepad.com)
• Fears Intensify for New Zealand Oil Spill Ship (online.wsj.com)
• MV Rena… “The worst environmental maritime disaster in New Zealand” – Prime Minister (gcaptain.com)
• Stranded Ship in N.Z. Safe From Breakup for Now, Official Says (businessweek.com)
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• ‘Massive’ oil spill clean-up underway in New Zealand (cnn.com)