A couple of days ago, Steven Joyce was on television saying that a dedicated response vessel and a plan to back it up would have made no difference to the outcome of the Rena disaster.
A dedicated response vessel would have been highly advantageous in such circumstances. There was obviously no plan as shown by the five days it took to send the pumping ship Awanuia to the scene of the disaster. Clearly National and MNZ failed to respond fast enough or adequately.
This is important because of the fact that the Rena's onboard pumping equipment was still operational giving an opportunity to any salvage operation if it acted fast enough. Not only has Steven Joyce chosen to ignore this fact, he has now tried to mislead the public.
But if that wasn’t bad enough, a lack of any proper containment equipment being on standby was again evident on Saturday when another large amount of oil spilled from the stricken vessel. There was no attempt to contain it or gather it from the water... just another acknowledgement that the oil will most likely wash ashore.
Did you happen to notice the other blatant lie during this report? Maritime "Consultant" John Ridding said the weather didn’t allow a salvage operation. The weather was calm for a week after the Rena grounded.
Having a response and pumping vessel available would have made a huge difference to the salvage operation. Instead two months after the disaster began, we're still having oil leaking from the Rena.
Having a response and pumping vessel available would have made a huge difference to the salvage operation. Instead two months after the disaster began, we're still having oil leaking from the Rena.
