Oil spill off New Zealand in 2011
For oil spill off New Zealand in 2011 took place on the morning of 5 April 2011, as the container ship Rena on about 20 km off Tauranga in the Bay Of Plenty lying Astrolabe Reef aground.
background
The wrecked ship Rena was a Panamax - container ship , flying the flag of Liberia continued. The ship was designed by the Greek company Costamare bereedert and from June 2011 for five years to the Mediterranean Shipping Company charter. The ship was built at Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG in Kiel . The keel was laid on October 4, 1989, and completed on April 1, 1990. Until the accident, the ship changed hands several times.
The Bay of Plenty, with the Mayor Island Marine Reserve in the northeast, is ecologically significant, especially for some whale species and sea birds. In addition, the bay's white beaches are important to New Zealand tourism.
Course of events
Coordinates: 37 ° 32 ′ 25 ″ S , 176 ° 25 ′ 45 ″ E
On October 5, 2011 at around 2:20 a.m. local time, the Rena , which was 9.6 m draft on the way from Napier to Tauranga on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island , ran to about 20 km from Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty lying astrolabe reef on. There were 25 crew members on board who were brought to safety. At the time of the accident, the ship had 1,368 containers on board, which were loaded with wood, milk powder , meat and fish , among other things . There were also around 1500 to 2000 tons of heavy oil in the fuel tanks.
As a result of the collision, the Rena got into an incline of about 12 degrees; two holds were flooded, the fuel tanks initially remained undamaged. However, oil leaked from broken pipes. Among other things, the Bay of Plenty was threatened by the accident . On November 13, 2011, the pumping out of the oil was completed, but small residues remained in the ship.
Rescue operation
After the Australian bunker ship Awanuia had reached the site of the accident on the morning of October 8, 2011 , the recovery teams began pumping out the fuel the next day. In addition, heavy oil was pumped from the damaged tank no. 3 to tank no. 5 further aft. Because of the deteriorating weather, the container load was better secured.
On the night of October 11, 2011, the hull of the ship was further damaged by the poor weather conditions. Pumping off the heavy fuel oil also had to be interrupted. By then, 200 to 300 tons of oil had already flown into the sea.
Special cleanup teams cleaned up the Bay of Plenty beaches. They found numerous dead and oily seabirds, including penguins. The captain of the Rena had meanwhile been tried in the Tauranga court.
On October 19, 2011, according to rescue manager Bruce Anderson, divers swam again to the engine room on the starboard side. "They're trying to set up dry access to the tanks there," said Anderson. According to the New Zealand Maritime Authority, a tug was connected to the stern of the Rena at this time in order to stabilize the ship. Two more stood ready in case the ship breaks apart.
On October 21, 2011, it was announced that the ship was endangered because only part of it was on the reef. The waves exerted enormous pressure on the part of the hull that was in the open sea.
On October 22, 2011, 256 tons of oil had been pumped out of the Rena's tanks. The ship Pancaldo was able to recover a small part of the fallen and sunk containers .
By October 30, over 1000 tons of oil had been pumped out, with around 350 tons still in the ship. About the same amount of oil had already flowed into the sea by then.
Less than a month after the accident, the condition of the container ship deteriorated. The authorities said on November 1, 2011 that they were preparing for the ship to break up. By then, more than 1,100 tons of oil had been pumped out of the ship. The remaining amount of oil on board was about 358 tons. After a storm-related break, rescue teams worked on board again on November 2, 2011 to reconnect the pumps, Maritime New Zealand announced . The teams tried to pump out as much oil as possible before the ship broke apart.
After the remaining 358 tons of oil had been pumped out over the next few days, the remaining 1200 containers had to be retrieved from the deck of the ship. In the event that containers get lost in the sea, the most important containers have been equipped with a transponder. This enabled the rescue teams to quickly locate and find these containers.
On November 10, 2011, pumping started from the last filled oil tank. Three days later, most of the oil was pumped out and the recovery of the remaining 1280 containers could begin. This turned out to be a lengthy process, as on average only six containers could be recovered per day.
By December 22nd, 282 containers had been recovered from the ship. It had loaded a total of 1368 containers, 86 of which fell into the sea. A total of 19 containers were salvaged and brought ashore. This left a remainder of 1086 containers still to be recovered.
On January 8, 2012, the Rena finally broke into two parts. Around 150 containers, some of them with dangerous goods, went overboard.
On January 10, 2012, three quarters of the rear of the Rena sank. In the process, a small amount of oil leaked out and spread across the sea. In addition to the oil, 13 containers were also torn loose and washed up on the beaches.
By January 23, 2012, 39 of the 110 containers had been recovered from the front of the ship. On April 4, 2012, the stern slid further down the reef and sank completely. By this time, 685 containers, slightly more than half of the 1,386 loaded containers, had been recovered.
consequences
On October 13, 2011, the beaches between Mount Maunganui and Maketu Point were cordoned off. At first it was said that about 30 containers had gone overboard, then the number was corrected to 90. Some contain toxic substances.
It is believed that around 400 tons of toxic heavy oil streamed into the sea. Helpers counted more than 1,300 dead seabirds, including guillemot petrels, shearwaters and little penguins . 800 bags of oil-stuck sand were removed from the affected beaches.
At the end of February, the number of birds that died was over 2000. On February 7, 2012, Environment Secretary Nick Smith stated the total estimated cost of repairing the damage to be NZ $ 130 million .
Environmental impact
On October 19th, 200 kilometers from the accident site, oily silt, dead birds and leather were washed ashore from one of the freight containers. A little further on, on the northern tip of the East Cape, powdered milk was found.
According to the shipping authorities, 288 birds were fostered in a rescue center for animals smeared with oil by October 19, 2011.
The Bay of Plenty and the adjacent waters around the marine reserve "Mayor Island Marine Reserve" were affected by the oil leak over long stretches. According to the NABU, the highly toxic heavy fuel oil will burden the ecosystem for years and in the long term lead to the death of many marine organisms.
More than 3000 liters of the toxic dispersant Corexit 9500 were sprayed on the oil spill in the days after the accident. Then it was found that the desired effect of the dispersion did not occur with the heavy oil of the "Rena". Corexit was also used during the “ Deepwater Horizon ” disaster in April 2010, where its use was controversially discussed with reference to the effect on microbiology, among other things.
Cleaning inserts
In addition to the army, 6,000 volunteers stood ready in the two weeks after the accident. Several international and New Zealand environmental organizations ( Forest and Bird ) were active in the cleanup. The cleaning activities are coordinated by Maritime New Zealand . The helpers remove the oil from the sandy beaches and clean oily birds. Species that are particularly threatened have been evacuated from the area. Almost 50 specimens of the endangered Maori plover were caught and brought to safety. There are only about 1500 copies of this species worldwide.
On October 22, 2011, beaches were cleaned at five main points over a length of 30 km at Waihau Bay, about 200 km away from Tauranga . Oil barriers have also been prepared to protect the Maketu Estuar from possible pollution.
The cost of cleaning operations through November 5th was NZ $ 14 million . As of November 5, 2011, volunteers invested more than 13,000 hours of their time cleaning up the environment.
Legal consequences
The Filipino captain and his navigational officer had to answer in court for negligent navigation. They faced a one-year prison sentence for this. The New Zealand Maritime Administration later expanded the charges to include the discharge of dangerous substances at sea. They have up to two years in prison or a fine of 300,000 New Zealand dollars (around 175,000 euros). In addition, the master was accused of manipulating the logbook after the accident. At the end of February, the captain pleaded guilty on all six counts and his officer on four out of five. The Rena apparently tried at the time of the accident, shorten the way to the Port of Tauranga to a deadline to be observed. According to the prosecutor, the crew made a number of mistakes and incorrectly changed the course of the ship. On May 25, 2012, the two ship officers charged were sentenced to seven months 'imprisonment in a court in Rotorua (the maximum sentence the court could have pronounced under the law is seven years ' imprisonment ).
Reactions
The New Zealand Environment Minister Nick Smith described the looming oil spill as the "worst environmental disaster" in the country's history. After the accident, experts and locals wondered how the freighter could collide with the reef in the first place: It is only 80 meters wide and mostly clearly visible. It has been recorded on nautical charts since 1827 .
During a visit to the site of the accident shortly after the accident, Prime Minister John Key demanded that the accident be fully investigated. Someone has to be held accountable. “There are serious questions to be answered. We want to know how that could happen. "
In response to the accident, on October 20, 2011, NABU called for an improvement in ship safety for German waters as well. This included larger capacities for deep-sea tugs , a pilot requirement in dangerous passages and seamless monitoring of shipping using automated systems ( Automatic Identification System ). The misfortune of the "Rena" shows once again how difficult it is to get such accidents under control.
literature
- Nikos Späth: The recovery of the »Rena« . In: Hansa , issue 11/2012, p. 73, Schiffahrts-Verlag Hansa, Hamburg 2012, ISSN 0017-7504
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Tauranga incident page . Maritime New Zealand , archived from the original on November 13, 2011 ; accessed on February 4, 2016 .
- ↑ a b c d e f Response to the Rena grounding . Maritime New Zealand , December 24, 2012, accessed February 4, 2016 .
- ^ "Rena" unlucky freighter evacuated off New Zealand , Welt Online, October 11, 2011
- ↑ New Zealand fears oil spills on the coast , Spiegel Online, October 9, 2011
- ↑ Video footage: Oil spill from the MV Rena , Bay of Plenty Times, October 6, 2011
- ↑ report at tvnz.co.nz (English)
- ^ Minister: New Zealand's worst environmental disaster. In: Frankfuter Rundschau. October 11, 2001, accessed May 25, 2019 .
- ↑ New Zealand: More oil pumped from shipwrecks on tagesschau.sf.tv , October 21, 2011
- ↑ Rena update: Salvage slow but steady on nzherald.co.nz , October 22, 2011 (English)
- ↑ Most Rena tanks empty but fresh oil on beach , tvnz, October 30, 2011
- ↑ Rena clean up cost jumps , tvnz, October 27, 2011
- ↑ wrecked "Rena": Authority says Breaking freighter ahead on SPIEGEL ONLINE , November 2nd 2011
- ^ New machine to assist in Rena cleanup , tvnz, November 8, 2011
- ↑ Most heavy oil pumped off the Rena , tvnz, November 13, 2011
- ↑ Work to continue as Rena's condition worsens , tvnz, December 22, 2011
- ↑ More Rena oil exposed on beaches , tvnz, November 29, 2011
- ↑ Few Rena containers to be returned without charge , tvnz, December 9, 2011
- ↑ We need to deal with Rena situation rapidly - Tauranga Mayor , tvnz. January 9, 2012
- ↑ Rena's stern expected to sink , tvnz, January 8, 2012
- ↑ Calls for Rena to be turned into dive spot tvnz, January 10, 2012
- ^ Salvors remove more containers from Rena , tvnz, January 23, 2012
- ↑ Rena's stern gone from reef ( English ) In: Otago Daily Times . April 4, 2012. Retrieved April 5, 2012.
- ↑ Rena oil spill: Thursday as it happened , tvnz, October 13, 2011
- ↑ "Rena" - Captain pleads guilty in court , Spiegel Online, February 29, 2012
- ↑ "Rena" - Captain pleads guilty , sueddeutsche.de, February 29, 2012
- ↑ Confession of guilt by the captain of the damaged "Rena" , focus.de, February 29, 2012
- ↑ "Rena" - Captain admits guilt , ntv.de, February 29, 2012
- ↑ Rena cleanup cost jumps to $ 130m , tvnz, February 7, 2012
- ↑ PA Fulmer, LJ Hamdan: Effects of COREXIT EC9500A on bacterial communities influenced by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill , AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, December 2010, bibcode : 2010AGUFMOS33B1475F
- ^ Salvors make progress on submerged tank , tvnz, November 5, 2011
- ^ Oil spill off New Zealand: Seven months' imprisonment for "Rena" captain at sueddeutsche.de, May 25, 2012 (accessed on May 25, 2012)
- ^ Rena 'worst maritime environmental disaster'. In: Stuff. Fairfax Media, accessed October 19, 2011 .
- ↑ Damaged freighter "Rena": New Zealand fears oil spill on the coast on SPIEGEL ONLINE , October 9, 2011
- ↑ Fear of the great catastrophe. Archived from the original on August 29, 2014 ; Retrieved February 4, 2016 .