Another Oil Disaster, this time off New Zealand.

The Ships Captain is facing a year in prison.  The ship was in calm seas before a storm hit that cracked the container and spilled its entire contents in to the sea.  The oil  has washed ashore along with the cargo contains on its deck.  The sea is black with oil and the ship is completely broken in pieces after striking the reef.

Rena oil spill 'New Zealand's worst maritime environmental disaster' - video (click title to entry - thank you)

Bad weather has forced efforts to salvage the stricken oil container Rena off New Zealand's east Tauranga coast. Environment minister Nick Smith says the oil spill is now his country's most serious ever maritime environmental disaster. The ship hit the Astrolabe reef in calm waters in the North Island Bay of Plenty on 5 October


The environmental disaster occurred on a coral reef with a wealth of fish and bird species.

...About 500 oil spill responders (click here) have been on Bay of Plenty beaches today, removing patches of gluggy spillage from the stranded and breaking Rena.

The heaviest concentration of oil has been on Papamoa beach.

Wildlife is dying and the area's pristine white sand beaches are turning black with oil and are dotted with containers which have been lost overboard.

By early today around 50 tonnes of solid waste and five tonnes of liquid waste had been scooped from beaches, reported Newstalk ZB....


New Zealand Residents respond to the disaster (click here for video)

Those that live along the beaches were asked by their government to keep their windows closed.  Like that is going to stop the airborne toxins from reaching lungs.  Amazing.  "Duck and Cover."

Rena oil spill: Wednesday as it happened (click here)

Published: 9:05AM Wednesday October 12, 2011 Source: ONE News