All hands on deck for clean up

Horizons Regional Council staff have been joined by DOC, local volunteers and iwi from Ngati Kauwhata and Rangitaane o Manawatu to clean-up oil from the shoreline between Foxton and Himatangi Beach.

The crew of around 20 people are working to remove oil from the beach equipped with shovels, gloves and bin liners and at this stage the clean-up is anticipated to take at least a couple of days.

Horizons on-scene commander Ian Lowe says the clean-up is currently concentrating on large, manageable bits and no new oil has washed up since yesterday.

“We’ve had a team of Massey University ecologists and members of the Manawatu Estuary Trust checking the RAMSAR site at the Manawatu Estuary today and we’re pleased to report no oil in this area. The team did pick up one albatross that was worn out from a recent storm but this was not affected by oil in any way and has been taken back to Massey for some TLC,” Mr Lowe says.

The source of the oil remains unknown. Samples have been sent to a laboratory and the results of this testing are expected by the end of the week.

Maritime New Zealand is also looking at trajectory models and vessel logs to try and determine a possible source. However, focus is very much on the clean-up effort at this stage.

The beaches are currently closed to traffic and people are being urged to stay off the beaches while clean-up crews carry out their work.

ENDS

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