Teams race to pump oil from ship

Salvage teams have begun pumping oil from a stricken container ship off New Zealand, ahead of bad weather that could split the vessel into two and spew more oil on to beaches.

The Liberian-flagged Rena has been stuck for 12 days on a reef 14 miles off Tauranga on the east coast of North Island, having already spilled 350 tonnes of toxic fuel and some of its hundreds of containers into the sea.

Salvage teams were yesterday adding extra pumps to speed up the recovery of the oil, as thick as peanut butter, from the 775ft vessel through holes in the side to a barge.

More than 70 tonnes have been recovered, but fears are that bad weather will possibly send the stern section, which contains more than 1,000 tonnes of oil, tumbling into 60m of water.

“If the vessel falls off the reef it could puncture a tank,” said Bruce Anderson, spokesman of Maritime NZ. Forecasts are for winds to rise to 40mph.

The salvage company said further spills of oil not in tanks seemed inevitable.

“That ship is very, very sick. She is fractured, she is broken, she is on her knees,” Matt Watson of the Svitzer salvage firm told Radio New Zealand.

The ship’s captain and second officer, both from the Philippines, are due in court tomorrow on charges of operating the 47,320-tonne ship in a dangerous manner.