Oil spill is New Zealand's 'most significant' environmental disaster at sea
40 replies, posted
Source: [url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44854308/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/#.TpQplrKRp8E]MSNBC[/url]
[B]Authorities warn people to get off beaches, refrain from eating seafood [/B]
[release]
An oil spill from a container ship stricken off New Zealand is now the country's "most significant maritime environmental disaster," a government minister said Tuesday.
Environment Minister Nick Smith issued the warning as the weather deteriorated, sending clumps of thick fuel oil on to nearby beaches.
The Liberian-flagged Rena has been stranded on a reef about 12 nautical miles off Tauranga on the east coast of the country's North Island since running aground on Wednesday.
As much as 385 of 1,879 tons of heavy fuel oil has already escaped and authorities have warned people off the beaches and told them not to eat seafood from the area.
Smith said oil poured out of a new puncture in the Rena at "fivefold" the rate it had in the days after the ship grounded on Astrolabe Reef, the New Zealand Herald reported.
"I'd like to acknowledge this event has come to a stage where it is New Zealand's most significant maritime environmental disaster," Smith told a news briefing in Tauranga, according to BBC News.
"It is my view that the tragic events we are seeing unfolding were absolutely inevitable from the point that the Rena ran onto the reef in the early hours of Wednesday morning," he added.
[img]http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/111010-newzealandoilspill-hmed-840p.grid-8x2.jpg[/img]
Long, golden beaches
The district is a popular holiday resort, with long, golden beaches renowned for surfing and nearby waters with an international reputation for big-game fishing.
Booms have been put over some harbor entrances to prevent oil from destroying wetland and wildlife habitats. So far fewer than a dozen seabirds have died and about the same number treated for oil contamination.
Maritime New Zealand said weather overnight had shifted the ship on the reef and continuing heavy swells and strengthening winds were making it too dangerous to stay on board.
"All personnel have now been taken off the vessel as a precautionary measure due to the conditions," the agency said in a statement.
Swells of up to 12 feet and winds gusting up to 25 knots had moved the ship around on the reef, but also reduced its list to between three and six degrees from the previous 11 degrees.
"There has been more damage to the front part in the vessel, and additional flooding in the forward holds. However, this will to some degree help to settle Rena."
Refloating and salvage of the ship is the responsibility of the owner, Daina Shipping, a unit of Greece's Costamare Inc., and salvage experts, but any plan needs official approval.
The ship was en route to Tauranga, 200 km (120 miles) southeast of New Zealand's biggest city, Auckland, the country's biggest export port and a hub for transshipping cargo, to collect cargo before heading for Singapore.[/release]
The pristine waters aren't looking so nice now :c
(Follow up to [url]http://www.facepunch.com/threads/1131371[/url] which is apparently not as good as Tiger Woods being hit by a hotdog)
My local beach is still fine so all good :v:
oops
We are killing ourselves slowly.
Guess we aren't serving local seafood for a while.
It feels like i hear about a new oil spill every week.
I thought the oil was precious and yet it spills out often(or is it just what it sounds like?).
The companies need to start to think what they are doing.
Fucking oil companies, poor regulating governments, what the hell is wrong with the world?
Did you know that within a year all the oil will create a huge boom in the fish population?
[QUOTE=Biotoxsin;32732803]Fucking oil companies, poor regulating governments, what the hell is wrong with the world?[/QUOTE]
humanity, there's your problem.
Well we're fucked.
As if the ocean wasn't fucked up enough already.
[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;32734887]Did you know that within a year all the oil will create a huge boom in the fish population?[/QUOTE]
wat
[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;32734887]Did you know that within a year all the oil will create a huge boom in the fish population?[/QUOTE]
Since you didn't give a source, I'll assume that's because they go from practically none (after the spill) to less than usual (a year later). That's a huge increase, but still a loss.
[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;32734887]Did you know that within a year all the oil will create a huge boom in the fish population?[/QUOTE]
stop making up science
[QUOTE=ica|kvantum;32732719]It feels like i hear about a new oil spill every week.
I thought the oil was precious and yet it spills out often(or is it just what it sounds like?).
The companies need to start to think what they are doing.[/QUOTE]
Well it's no wonder some oil spills given how much it is needed to be shipped all the time to build every day shit.
[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;32734887]Did you know that within a year all the oil will create a huge boom in the fish population?[/QUOTE]
Do explain.
[QUOTE=OvB;32735425]Do explain.[/QUOTE]
Oil is pretty much food for microscopic organisms.
They get tons of food from this, meaning more microscopic organisms, meaning more food for larger organisms, and on and on.
[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;32736053]Oil is pretty much food for microscopic organisms.
They get tons of food from this, meaning more microscopic organisms, meaning more food for larger organisms, and on and on.[/QUOTE]
Hah yeah and they grow wings and turn into dragons
[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;32736053]Oil is pretty much food for microscopic organisms.
They get tons of food from this, meaning more microscopic organisms, meaning more food for larger organisms, and on and on.[/QUOTE]
They have bio-engineered, lab made oil eating bacteria. Such organisms are not naturally occurring.
The organisms that make up the bottom of the food chain in the ocean consist of Phytoplankton and Zooplankton. As their names suggest, Phytoplankton are green and photosynthetic. Zooplankton feed on the Phytoplankton. Fish larvae and Copepods feed on the zooplankton, small fish feed on the Copepods, and so on and so fourth. This spill is different than the spill in the Gulf because it is already refined oil. Therefore it sits at the surface for the most part. The Gulf spill was unrefined crude oil so it was a lot more dense and sank after awhile, causing tons of problems for sea life. Fish cannot breath in oil and they will no doubt die if they do. I doubt photosynthesis will take place if there's a big glossy sheen of oil on the surface, restricting light penetration. Then birds and air breathing sea mammals come in contact with it, causing death as well.
Long story short: oil spills are never a good thing. Ever.
More specifically, for birds, the oil gets absorbed into their bodies/feathers, which makes them unable to fly and ultimately causing death.
[QUOTE=redBadger;32736538]More specifically, for birds, the oil gets absorbed into their bodies/feathers, which makes them unable to fly and ultimately causing death.[/QUOTE]
Prolonged exposure to your eyes and open bits, as well as breathing it in is bad too.
[QUOTE=OvB;32736419]They have bio-engineered, lab made oil eating bacteria. Such organisms are not naturally occurring. [/QUOTE]
I'm talking about natural organisms.
Plant life will use the oil as fertilizer, which pretty much happened in the Gulf.
[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;32734887]Did you know that within a year all the oil will create a huge boom in the fish population?[/QUOTE]
I think I had a stroke.
[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;32736631]I'm talking about natural organisms.
Plant life will use the oil as fertilizer, which pretty much happened in the Gulf.[/QUOTE]
Okay let's favour plant life and kill off everything else
artificial ecosystems are not good ecosystems
[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;32736631]I'm talking about natural organisms.
Plant life will use the oil as fertilizer, which pretty much happened in the Gulf.[/QUOTE]
Do you have a link to support this?
Algal blooms create dead zones. Areas of ocean devoid of life because the night time aerobic activity of the sudden large number of algae created a hypoxic environment where fish cannot survive. Like the Mississippi river delta, that dumps millions of tons of fertilizer from the farms in the mid west into the Gulf of Mexico every year. The Nitrogen and Phosphates in the fertilizers cause algae to grow out of proportion and deplete the area of oxygen, and in the case of a coral reef, compete for sunlight. The same happens in Australia around the Great Barrier Reef, and pretty much everywhere else humans live on the coast or down river.
Wasn't there a boat/ship that would collect an amount of water with oil in it, take out the oil, and put the water back out? We'll be needing a bunch of those.
it's bullshit, i live near where this happened and they fuck up our beaches and our water and we can't even loot the crates that wash up on the shore???? fucksake
[QUOTE=Lachz0r;32741967]it's bullshit, i live near where this happened and they fuck up our beaches and our water and we can't even loot the crates that wash up on the shore???? fucksake[/QUOTE]
I just have to ask, are you a maori :v:
[QUOTE=Stormcharger;32742641]I just have to ask, are you a maori :v:[/QUOTE]
lol naw. just a pissed of bay off plentyian who wants to get him some loot
I like how John Key is doing fuck all.
Makes me glad I moved to Australia. Shit gets [i]done[/i] here.
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