Tauranga Oil Spill

Jeez just read the update, that situation got worse quick...better not keep that up D:

This country sure seems to be getting a lot more prone to disaster recently

First Dan Carter... then Zac Guildford, then Israel Dagg and Richard Kahui... now this ?

Can we get a break please !

Hasnt all this happened since we voted in John Key

we?

one can't pin this on Mr Key nor his govt - how the cleanup is handled possibly

lets hope for a quick and effective cleanup... and some serious questions asked after on how this happened

Probably gonna come down to things like failure on the part of the regulator, the regulations, organisational pressure to maximise profit, an organisational culture of rule breaking, a complex task undertaken with inferior, dated or non-regularly-maintained technologies, institutionalised blindness to risk, organisationally determined obedience to the rules in all situations, and confused communication between the captain and the harbourmaster. One of whom is alcoholic.

The shipping industy is one huge safety fuck-up.

The govt couldnt give a rats arse and who has the time to protest and change these things?

What else would you like to know?

LET THE OIL FLOW!

way to miss his sardonic jibe what?

I think I can see how. In the circles you mix in JONKEY is the devil incarnate.

TBH I think if we lose the RWC it's because John Key called it a Troty

"Oil spilled from a stricken container ship off the Tauranga coastline has started washing up on shore at Mt Maunganui, reports say.

The Bay Of Plenty Times said its reporters had spotted oil from the Rena, which is stranded on the Astrolabe Reef, on the Mount Main Beach near Leisure Island this morning." NZ Herald

this is really concerning.... and its just a ship stuck

what of the oil exploration going on and about to....

no one cares to comment?

Well here's a conspiracy theory to liven the discussion up

Joyce claims his "free oil for the people of Tauranga" stunt is not an election bribe.

I care, my friend just said he took his dog for a walk on his local beach, and now he's trying to was oil off its feetsies.

Wondering why JK took 4 days to start asking questions...

Apparently its good to wash other oil into the the feetsies and then wash it out... like umm cooking oil... before soap.

four days well spent getting TVNZ to move coro back to where it rightly should be I imagine

Stephen Joyce dismissed criticism that New Zealand was not geared up for an oil spill disaster. "You get about three incidents like this in the world a year. We have one of these things every 10 years. To suggest you should have these people based in New Zealand is actually laughable." - So by his logic an environmental disaster every 10 years is acceptable?

how come we get so many of these by his logic - 3 a year / by what 196 countries... = 1 per decade for NZ????

thank christ he (and I) are not doing the countries books

looks at English

oh fuck

What the fuck is wrong with us?

Shh rugbys on

tbh I have spent enough weekends on my back under a car to have little fear of getting oil on my hands and would rather remove it from one of our beaches than leave it there; is the type of oil being discussed here particularly unhealthy? (ie dumb people not being scared of oil)

Or are you saying that the authorities took too long to warn people not to eat the black snow? (slow authorities I)

Or are you saying it's bullshit that authorities are so slow to act that people are forced to take action themselves? (slow authorities II)

even used car oil on your hands is toxic hence why mechs use surgical gloves these days

in answer to your questions yes yes and yes

oh christ they're saying the wreck could take years to salvage....

http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/5763630/Salvage-of-Rena-could-take-years-MNZ

Surely you can have a response team for this type of thing which is part of some other organization or also involved with something else. It does not mean they have to sit there doing nothing all day until one occurs. Steven is highly arrogant. It is always evident when I hear him talk on the radio.

There are all types of disasters we are prepared for with plans via Civil Defense and other organizations etc. But not this? LOL at you Stephen! Lets not prepare for anything that only occurs every 10+ years then??? LOL

http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/5763634/Rena-salvage-claimed-fastest-ever

we've been slow to respond to many events of late it seems

we've also seemed to have hit a really bad run of natural and unnatural disasters these past few years

Time for us all to look at our environment and start putting it first not last in our list of priorities

So the conclusion to draw from this mostly well managed and seemingly quick response is that we need to try harder. What conclusion would you draw from a badly managed response?

I think people are falling for the media hype in this.
Highly toxic - yes, if you were to eat it or bathe in it. Occasional contact with oil is no issue - lifetime, eg mechanic can cause problems.
Slow response to warning people - you need to be told not to eat the black goo that is washing up on the beach?
They didnt have people standing around waiting for it to wash up - but they had 300 people there a couple of hours later.

meh to media. meh to people who expect the thunderbirds to arrive in a few minutes of an incident.

I don't think the response has been slow at all. Shipwrecks like this the world over a major events and you can't just go in there like superheroes and lift the thing off and fly the thing back to the dry dock. There has to be an element of planning involved, which there has been. Handled well so far imo.

Agree with the Joyce comment though. He is a fucking arrogant little worm.

well the news video I watched tis morning bob had locals on the ground lamenting the lack of action by authorities and they had seized the initiative themselves

the cost to Tauranga and The Mount of this will only be revelaed in coming summer months butt it looks o be substantial in lost bookings etc.

the response to getting the oil off the tanker has seemed slow - it didn't seem like much was happening until the Greens started asking very pointed questions of the govt and then its seemed quite quick

they had 3 clear days post strike in which to start getting the oil off and its not asking much for one of our biggest and busiest ports to be prepared for events like this - let alone the country as a whole, we're surrounded by water...

we need to stop cost cutting and putting money back into emergency response and being prepared for the natural and man made disasters that will happen - all political parties need to take heed on this

That's been discussed. They're not going to put people down there to clean up when there's more to come in. It's like cleaning up from a flood while it's still happening.


Well of course it will. A fucking massive ship is spewing oil into the harbour.

Huh, crazy! Guess that puts a damper on my arm-wrestling career then...

Well they should be - its called damage control, get the sit off the beach as quickly as possible to limit any harm it can do - and continue to do so until no more oil is hitting the shore

or would you suggest the fire dept wait for houses to be really burning before deploying their hoses? Of course not

via twitter

Reports that the #RENA is breaking up and an Iroquois is evacuating everyone left on board. #disaster


so hope thats wrong

That's silly. Fire crews put out fires. Demolition crews come in after and take the house away. Oil clean up gangs are the demolition crew. You don't send them into the house while it's still on fire.

As more comes in then it becomes justified, as it's easier to clean up a small layer multiple times than a thick layer once. But I believe there are gangs out there now?

This is for beaches mind. Wetlands are a different story, but from what I've heard they are focussing more on those anyway.

spike - remember that big spill in the gulf? Did they wait for the thing to finish before starting their cleanup?

of course not... you deal with the mess as it comes not afterwards when all the sea life and birdlife is dead

This isn't nigeria or some such place

you're making no sense at all man - best get out of the house now just to be safe

meanwhile:

UPDATE: Defence Force confirm they're responding to #Rena mayday (+audio) via herald

See my comment regarding more oil please. There is no sea life on the beach bobd. Hopefully you knew that already.

there is in the tdal zone

and as the oil travels through the waters before washing up on shore - what lives there....

Totally agree. But that's not going to change by cleaning it off the beach is it? It has to go through the sea to get to the beach. By the time it's on the beach the damage is done.

350 tonnes leaked over night only 10 tonnes before then so expect much worse

Except the birds, the transiting penguins, the crabs, the pets, the people and all the rest of the entire fucking intertidal eco-system.

This type of wreck has been a disaster waiting to happen for years. Low standards of seamanship, under-manning, poor seamanship and sea sense, slack discipline, slack regulation (they allow unmanned bridges FFS) over-reliance on electronic navigational aides are all systemic and well known problems in the shipping business. As soon as i saw that ship on the reef I knew they weren't going to it off unless they were really lucky. The ship is well up on the reef - 40,000 tons hitting something at 17 knots isn't going anywhere fast. The tardy, amateurish and muddled response is a disgraceful reflection of the pathetic state of preparedness we are in for any sort of major off-shore oil spill. The government's reaction is also typical - do nothing, hands off, relying on the ships owners (this from an industry that under-crews it's ships with imbeciles and hides in countries like Panama and Liberia where there is no regulation!), a general liassez-faire incompetence from top to bottom.

Those dumb arse motherfuckers in Maritme NZ sat there for four days looking at the MV Rena in the apparent hope that that might have some effect; they did absolutely nothing beyond issuing bogus promises and reassurances and trying to find someone who actually knew how to do something about the wreck. So far, they've pumped the grand total of 10 tons of oil using a painfully slow astern method I haven't seen outside WWII history books. And the thing is this - this grounding hasn't occurred on some remote spot hundreds of kilometres from the nearest major base or source of equipment. it has happened less than 20km from the second largest port in the country. And the fact is there no one - not Maritime NZ, not the Ports of Tauranga Authority, not the NZ government - who has got a fucking clue what to do, or even if they did the equipment and gear on hand to do it. It is a disgrace.

The ship is now in heavy weather and is working about on the reef - that is, grinding bigger and more holes. The crew know what is coming and they've scarpered. Without the crew, the diesel or primary engine will soon fail. Loss of either will spell doom, since the auxillary diesel is used to start the main engine compression cycle, provide emergency power to the ship and it's pumps and pre-heat the heavy fuel oil to temperature that can allow the main engine to fire. Once the pumps fail the flooding will reach main engine room - these are not warships and apart from the double hull they do not have good watertight compartmentalisation - and then the ship will probably break its back.

So there is every chance this ship will lose power, flood, roll onto its side, and "fall off" the reef either by breaking in half or by capsizing. And then we will have over 2000 tons of heavy fue loil to deal with using a couple of speedboats and a helicopter.

And the government wants to allow deep sea off shore drilling?? Jesus Christ.

let's just pray for a few weeks of flat, clam weather.

Looking Grim at the Mount today

I think it's worth bearing in mind the difficulties involved in any pumping operation with a) the ship on a reef and b) the terrible weather which is hampering efforts.

Regardless, the response so far doesn't fill me with much confidence.

Might be sailing past on Thursday although I suspect it will be pre-dawn.

University of Southampton lecturer in oceanography Dr Simon Boxall told the Science Media Centre the chemicals used to disperse the oil were very toxic and had been banned by countries including Sweden.

I don't get why they are pumping the oil off onto another ship (now damaged and stuck in port) when we have inflatable barges (nz made too) to do the job such as this article from Friday suggests - admitably the seas are now probably too big (3m) for them to operate, but over the weekend it was not

http://www.sail-world.com/NZ/Time-running-out-fast-for-oil-recovery-from-stricken-ship-on-NZ-reef/89356

Now it has broken in half

D:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10758416

"...It emerged yesterday that on the day the Rena struck the reef, Maritime NZ declined an offer of two inflatable barges which could pump up to 100 tonnes of oil at a time.

The offer was made by Ronald Winstone, of Lancer Industries, who said the two barges would have easily emptied the ship of toxic oil in the four days of clear weather after the Rena ran aground.

"It would have taken them 17 trips to pump all the fuel off the ship and three or four days wouldn't have been unrealistic for that to have happened.

"It doesn't make sense why they didn't start pumping the oil earlier when they had the equipment to do it."

A Maritime NZ spokesman said Mr Winstone's offer was logged with its operations division, and "if they needed it they would have followed it up"...."

Incredible.

:facepalm:

some good info on lancer in the sail-world link I posted above

Maritime reports to that doosh Steven Joyce...Why are these government people so incapable of looking outside the box ...especially when we have equipment and ideas from smart kiwis available that are far better than there old school ideas...I just dont get it ...what is wrong with them Its just a hurry up and do nothing scenario ... deal with the aftermath not the situation.. arghhhhhhh

Ah, now i see the problem! Steven Joyce probably had his officials looking at ways of building a highway to the ship so the trucking industry could pocket the loot from salvaging the cargo.

Lots of loot floating towards shore as containers are now liberated to the sea so bargain hunters head to the foreshore this weekend.

So you're out of town this weekend NR?

I bet for everyone of your bargain hunters there will be at least 10 there to help clean up

Ah but you have to admire the liberal consumer seeing opportunity in every set-back

It'LL BE A CLEANUP AWIGHT

Free oil AND free loot? Be silly not to!

http://twitter.com/#!/kris_bNZ/media/grid

Couple of container and oil pics as we sailed into the Mount this morn.

LOL!

Hopefully if this oil spill does anything it will wake NZ'ers up to the fact that deep sea oil drilling off NZ's coast is just plane insane. I was really dissapointed when Greenpeace were protesting against Petrobas and something lke 70% of the public thought they were wrong and that deep sea oil would be good for the country... We can even handle this (relatively) tiny spill how the fuck would we handle a spill in water thousands of meters deep - it took them 3+ months to stop in the Gulf, down here it would take even longer.

Also might give the Greens another couple of % in the election - 11-12% would be brilliant

I'd imagine the Greens will be about 20% this election tbh.

This sums up my thoughts perfectly. Its an absolute fucking disgrace.

Absolutely agree with you, I hope you don't mind me using some of this in an on-going debate I'm currently having.

Didn't the maritime union advise the government they needed to buy an oil recovery boat last year and they refused ?

Just sayin'

Great to see Goff the tosser getting involved with no protective gear.
way to lead by example!!!

Perspective:
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2011/10/some-perspective-on-rena/

So he's saying it's not an ecological disaster ?

Had to respond - http://i.imgur.com/ERf1v.jpg

Ewwww Windows XP


This whole protective gear bizzo.. Its a all a bit paro? I mean really.. Like TtheHF has stated, who hasn't worked on shitty cars and got oil all up in their asshole (figure of speech by the way).


Oh but "its toxic", so is alcohol and I stick that down my throat?

Or is the the Corexit thats toxic and they don't want to admit it?

cowreckshit

Kind of a bit like saying Deepwater Horizon in the new normal
For added perspective you also might want to compare the size of Papamoa and Mt Maunganu Beach to the Gulf of Mexico

That just made me google u god and Kogan Creek

LOL. Work stuff.

Well, not U-God tbh..

some peopke I know went to a corporate breakfast wank fest with JK he asked if anyone had a magic wand or massive crane to help fix the Rena issue. Apparantly he is so "charming and funny"

some people I know went to a corporate breakfast wank fest with JK today he asked if anyone had a magic wand or massive crane to help fix the Rena issue. Apparantly he is so "charming and funny"

I've been quite surprised - and pleased - at Key's cack-handed and off-tone response to this wreck. His jarring jibe about picking up a spade turned a risky photo-op into a TV news win for Goff by implying that Key thinks he is to important to roll his sleeves up and muck in with the rest. These comments at this breakfast making light of something that a lot of people really, really care about is also a stupid thing to say. If the MSM decide to run with it - and National have pissed off both the Herald (parliamentary ban) and TVNZ (Tuppawaka opening ban) in the past week - then he will be left again looking like he doesn't actually give a fuck.

Im altogether pissed off with all parties making a political football of this but it is RWC and electiion time. Now we just need to lose Sunday and election upset really will be on cards.

Said like someone whose party has only just gotten back into power

Your snide bunch gave Helen stick for far longer on much smaller issues a lot better dealt with than this; suck it up, princess

It's vastly nastier than motor oil.

the response, the preparation etc is a political issue - what would you have politicans do, continue smiling and waiving?

This govt (unfortunately for them - one would rather no govt had to deal with the disasters we've seen these past few years) have had plenty of experience of crisis management and still they can't do the simplest of things - step up and explain to the public whats happening and why - until its all too late... thats bad politics baby

and they deserve all the negativity handed them (regardless of the actual response to the grounding)

to even consider this isn't a political issue is naive in the extreme - who manages this country - business or our govt?

National have only compounded the political nature of this by (seemingly) being slow to respond and well to be blunt - we (I) don't care about business... we (I) care about the environment - something national just don't understand

!

http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/rena.jpg << HAY DON'T EVEN WORRY GUYZ, IT'S NOWHERE NEAR GoM!!

"It must be remembered though that this is a container ship not an oil tanker and so the amount of oil spilled is actually tiny compared could what could have been." Also it could have been a tanker filled with radiation-soaked AIDS-poison or even a comet plummeting into the sea off our coast which would have been even way worser!

HAHAH, stellar argument! Top site, BiscuitFeet, I agree entirely with what I can only assume to be your contention that this IS a big deal ad that that site is run by a loon :

*ps. I checked the tips and contact details on the site for links to OG PS Dance2000-created dance music, unicorn posters, and hats with lights attached but no joy, sadly...

What would terrify Whale Oil more is if it was a tanker full of left wing pinko pantywaists. Or something.

I refer to photo op chops and rushing to conclusions. I am not singling any party out for this, they are equally guilty imo.

Re deepwater:vision of disaster and oil slick washino wn east coast and up onto shoresof WElly harbour to doostep of behave.

Smoke another fuckin bulb you loon.

no photo no story....

I wish just one of the idiots would take their suit off

you're on a beach dick, dress like you're a kiwi not a wanker....

Was fucking wet down there bobd, not sunbathing weather. Fit only for winter cruisers and pathetic pollles.

one can wear a jacket and trousers... one should not wear a suit to a NZ beach ever

want to look like you're mucking in and helping - dress for the part
want to look like you're only there for as long as the cameras are rolling, keep the suit

politicians for the future not of the past

Whaleoil does have a point. It's bad, yss but nowhere as bad as a blowout woild be in deepshit so a perhaps timely reminder of things enironmental in regards to that issue,which prior tothis, had been somewhat marginalised to a few disgruntled east cape Maori.

Its the sort of thing political parties should be arguing about becasue government created the environment which allowed this to happen. Govt carries some of the responsibility

http://www.munz.org.nz/2011/10/12/ultimate-responsibility-for-rena-disaster-lies-with-the-government/

whaleoil leeches that which the national party research until hands him... hes a fucking muppet and proof not all of us are evolved

he and others lead the deflect attention from our glorious leader brigade... balanced by the standard et al who are equally biased but not quite so rabid (comments excluded)

effing quote schmuck fuck

Pike River, the MV Rena, the persistently high work death accident rate, Cave Creek - these things are the chickens of the neo-liberal reforms of the last twenty years coming home to roost, not a mysterious run of bad luck that seems to be about just now.

Of course the MV Rena - and Pike River and even before that Cave Creek - is the government's fault.

The government legislated to remove regulating and ensuring safe navigation from the old harbour boards when they created the new port companies and told them that they need only focus on making profits. Bingo, no rescue equipment or response plan from the Tauranga Port Company - why should they? The government told them their sole focus is on profit, not clearing up oil spills.

The government froze funding to Maritime New Zealand despite a 2010 Ernst & Young report warning of "high risk" to the Crown agency's "sustainability in the medium term". The risk would "either stop or erode the improvements to date or impact on its ability to deliver the core services required to ensure the maritime industry operates safely". Bingo, they are underfunded, under trained and under-performing.

The government de-regulated coastal shipping and allowed the anything goes practices of flag of convenience carriers. bingo, a ship load of pissed Fillipinos run their ship up on a reef.

The government changed the role and name of the maritime safety authority, renaming it maritime New Zealand and removing the words "safety" and "authority" from it's title and role description. Bingo, no one can make a decision.

The government sacked all the mining inspectors bar three and emasculated their powers to inspect mines , leading directly to the cavalier and cost cutting mindset that caused Pike River.

The government continually dilutes OSH regulations and insists on the absolute primacy of the right of business to make a profit should override every other consideration in the wrokplace.

The Government ran down the department of conservation to the point that it became so incompetent that it authorised the building of a viewing platform that killed fourteen young people.

These are not accidents we are talking about. they are the direct consequences of government decisions, decisions designed to put the interests of business and the capitalist demand for profit ahead of people and the environment. And National is the current government, so John Key has to carry the can for these decisions. he might whine that it isn't his fault and life is a bitch, but then again it is no more of a bitch for him than it is for a freezing worker carrying the can for the high dollar when he or she gets laid off.

so when Phil boy digs holes he is digging his own political grave then?

should he save that tar for later with which to paint himself also?

and when key surrounds himself with children... he's fiddling

the books?

interesting scan of a 1993 article warning of such an event with regards to changing regulations floating round fassbook for them with friends

took long enough then for a possibly drunk captain and crew to go aground and 'prove' it right

Possibly drunk.. you're just making shit up right?

I mean, possibly drunk in the same vain that he was possibly also wearing womans underwear and having sex with a raccon at the time also... possibly?

"No government department can do its job without adequate resourcing. In my opinion, it is up to governments to ensure that departments charged with carrying out statutory functions for the benefit of the community are provided with sufficient resources to enable them to do so. Here, the evidence is clear that the Department of Conservation lacked, and continues to lack those resources. For futur...e safety that must change." - Report into Cave Creek disaster, 1995 - Minister of Finance Bill Birch, deputy Minister of Finance Bill English.

"...National froze Maritime NZ's Crown budget in 2008, intending to keep it at $5.7m till 2014... ...Ernst & Young's December 2010 report warned of "high risk" to the Crown agency's "sustainability in the medium term". The risk would "either stop or erode the improvements to date or impact on its ability to deliver the core services required to ensure the maritime industry operates safely"..." Minister of Finance, Bill English.

Two National governments, same results.

Ships captains are notorious drunkards which is why they should be surrounded by a sea of enforced regulation

refer to Capt Haddock

according to other hearsay sailors also like small boys, walks in the rain and miami vice boxed sets

legislation & regulation should be robust and safetly mechanisms funded to a high standard regardless of peoples warped view of seafarers

Arrrgh Me Hearties