Analysis of the grounding of the MV Rena in New Zealand, 5 October, 2011
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Ecology, Environmental Contamination and Remediation, Environmental Impacts
- Keywords
- environmental effects, MV Rena, political context, New Zealand, community response, Oil spill
- Copyright
- © 2018 McLean
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2018. Analysis of the grounding of the MV Rena in New Zealand, 5 October, 2011. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26542v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.26542v1
Abstract
The grounding of the general cargo vessel MV Rena near Tauranga Harbor in October 2011 was New Zealand’s worst environmental disaster. The ship hit an offshore reef, creating hazardous salvage conditions,and the consequent spill of 350 tonnes of fuel oil affected 50 km of coastline and many islands. Many containers fell overboard, creating hazards for other shipping, requiring additional salvage resources, and introducing toxins to the marine environment that are still washing up six years later. The community responded to the disaster by flocking to the beaches and cleaning up the oil by hand, giving well over 20,000 hours of volunteer time. Short- and long-term environmental consequences for wildlife and the inshore marine environment are reviewed, along with the effects on the local economy, the political context and the management response. There were significant economic effects during the summer immediately following the event, but the clean-up appears to have been remarkably successful. While the above-water superstructure of the ship was removed, much of the (broken-up) hull remains on or close to the reef today. The final (legal) decision on the removal of the wreck has enabled abandonment of the wreck. There appear to be few, if any, long-term wider environmental effects although elevated levels of some contaminants are still measurable close to the wreck in 2017.
Author Comment
This paper is a broadly-based analysis of the environmental, social, economic and political consequences of a particular event - the grounding of a cargo vessel and subsequent oil spill and environmental contamination of the marine environment. It was NZ's worst environmental disaster to date, and readers will be particularly interested in the response of the community as key leaders in cleaning up the subsequent mess.