Race to empty oil from stricken ship off NZ
With the official met-service forecasting deteriorating conditions — including possible gale-force winds, from this afternoon — the race to remove heavy fuel oil from the 47,000-tonne vessel Rena took on added urgency.
Officials fear the stricken ship will break up and sink in the North Island bay and potentially cause New Zealand’s worst maritime pollution disaster in decades if the 1,700 tonnes of oil is still on board.
