The captain and the navigator of a ship that ran aground on a New Zealand reef last year in the country’s worst maritime environmental disaster were today each jailed for seven months.

A CARGO ship grounded off the New Zealand coast since October has split in two, spilling containers and debris and sparking fears of a fresh oil leak.

A cargo ship grounded off the New Zealand coast since October has split in two, spilling containers and debris and sparking fears of a fresh oil leak.

A salvage crew has returned to the stricken container ship which is stuck on a reef off the northern coast of New Zealand.

SALVAGE crews were scrambling to off-load oil from a stranded container ship in New Zealand’s pristine Bay of Plenty yesterday, as Prime Minister John Key demanded to know why the vessel hit a reef in calm waters.