An oil spill from a stranded cargo ship off New Zealand has become the country's worst maritime environmental disaster.
Oil began leaking from the Rena, a Liberian-flagged vessel, after it struck the Astrolabe Reef, about 12 nautical miles off the coast of Tauranga, on the North Island, on Wednesday October 05,2011 creating a five-km (three-mile) slick.
Maritime New Zealand(MNZ)estimates that 130-350 tonnes of oil have leaked from the vessel, which was carrying 1,700 cubic meters (450,000 gallons) of fuel.
Oil began leaking from the Rena, a Liberian-flagged vessel, after it struck the Astrolabe Reef, about 12 nautical miles off the coast of Tauranga, on the North Island, on Wednesday October 05,2011 creating a five-km (three-mile) slick.
Maritime New Zealand(MNZ)estimates that 130-350 tonnes of oil have leaked from the vessel, which was carrying 1,700 cubic meters (450,000 gallons) of fuel.
A New Zealand Air Force helicopter winches a salvage expert onto the stricken container ship Rena, about 12 nautical miles from Tauranga, on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island October 13, 2011
The 47,230 tonne Liberian-flagged Rena lists in heavy swells, about 12 nautical miles from Tauranga, on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, a week after hitting the Astrolabe Reef, October 12, 2011
The vessel Rena grounded on the Astrolabe reef near Tauranga on Oct. 5 and authorities feared the worst as about 385 tons of oil initially spilled into the ocean, fouling local beaches.But in a stop-start effort, salvage crews began pumping oil in the days after the grounding while bad weather threatened to tear the ship apart.
On Monday 14.11.2011, Maritime New Zealand announced it had finished pumping 1,454 tons of oil from the ship and was sending a sea crane to the vessel to begin removing some of the 1,280 containers that remain on board.
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