Rena: Costamare boxship away off Astrolabe Reef

An investigation into the grounding and breaking up of the Rena, a Liberian-flagged ship owned by the Greek shipping firm Costamare, is ongoing. The ship's captain and navigation officer, both Philippine nationals, will next month face criminal charges relating to operating a vessel in a dangerous manner and allowing the release of toxic materials.

Rena: clutch of blue penguins will not be reared

164 tonnes of heavy fuel oil has been pumped from Rena on to the barge Awanuia.

This means 645 tonnes of the 1370 tonnes thought to be left on the ship has been pumped. . But for the little blue penguins of Mount Maunganui this is breeding season, and the timing of the Rena oil spill in the Bay of Plenty could not have been much worse.

Locals put the number of breeding pairs of little blues penguins in this area at around 200 to 300; and the population now has the full attention of a team from Maritime New Zealand's National Oiled Wildlife Recovery unit, monitoring their burrows daily to help the birds survive this environmental disaster.

Whilst these nocturnal penguins may not appreciate such close attention as they incubate their eggs, the monitoring is critical. The penguins come ashore during the evening to find their burrows, and many are becoming oiled crossing rocks covered in thick tar-like oil.

"If a penguin becomes oiled and tries to preen itself, it can swallow the oil and become very sick. If we find a bird that is heavily oiled, we collect it and take it back to the wildlife recovery centre to be cleaned and rehabilitated," explains WWF-New Zealand Marine Programme Manager Rebecca Bird, one of 140 field staff working as part of Maritime New Zealand's oiled wildlife recovery efforts.

Around 120 little blue penguins have been rescued from the mount so far, and their chances of survival are comparatively good - penguins are some of the most resilient birds in recovering from oil spills. But Rebecca and the team are facing a tough choice - removing an oiled bird will give it a chance of survival, but its clutch is unlikely to survive:

"We checked on the pair of little blue penguins in the 'window nest' a couple of nights ago, and the mate was oiled so we had to take him away to the recovery centre to be looked after. Then the next night we found the other penguin was oiled and had to take her away. We hope that the birds we recover will be rehabilitated successfully, but it's heartbreaking to know that saving them means their clutch won't be reared," . Builders are racing to finish aviaries for the long-term care of hundreds of little blue penguins rescued following the oil spill.
here

Rena: captain had been drinking?

An investigation will consider whether the captain of a stricken cargo ship had been drinking when the vessel ran aground off Tauranga, Transport Minister Steven Joyce says.

The Liberian-flagged Rena was carrying about 1700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and about 70 tonnes of marine diesel when it struck the Astrolabe Reef at top speed on October 5.
The course the ship should be steering is about three miles to the north of astrolabe reef and there are no obstacles in the way.

He said he would have seen the two flashes of a lighthouse and two white flashes every so many seconds to indicate Mortiti Island.

One possible factor - the ship is believed to not have been equipped with an electronic course plotter, which would have alerted the crew if she strayed from her intended route.

"Our understanding is on the bridge they have radar and they got a GPS that gives them their position and traditional paper charts on the chart table [the equipment] has been enough since World War II and it's kept the port safe."

The ship is put on automatic pilot and a watch keeper monitors the position of the ship and maintains its planned trip.

"He's looking out for the radar. He's looking out through the windows to look for anything that would impede a safe passage."

Lees said an alarm would be sounded when the auto pilot could not keep on course anymore.

But, the reef would not show on the radar because it is too low and there would be no proximity alarms to indicate danger.

Rena: video boxship stranded on Reef off NZ

Rene: Liberian-flag boxship stranded on Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga NZ. The MV Rena's owners, Greece-based Costamare Inc, said they were "working tirelessly" on the response. .People know about the reef, and for it to plough into it for no particular reason - at night, in calm waters - tells you something terrible has gone wrong Officials say. 20-30 tonnes of oil have spilled into the Bay of Plenty, one of the country's top tourist destinations, since the MV Rena ran aground on October 5.
8806802 RENA A8XJ7 Container Ship 47230 1990
Official electronic charts that are considered 'paper equivalent' . at 22 years old this ship may still have been using paper charts,

http://www.bayofplentytimes.co.nz/news/oil-spill-tauranga-harbour-new-video/1129419/