One reader said "the government took control at Rugby Party Central because people couldn't get on a train! We need the Minister for the Environment to take control and have this ship pumped out now".
On Facebook the anger was sometimes being directed at fellow users with the conversation turning nasty a few times.
Read a selection of all comments here, and feel free to add your own thoughts below. Please note that our comments section has a moderation queue. Some comments might not appear on the website right away.
What people are saying online
* Gabigarate
People have been trying the 0800 number to be a volunteer and the info given was that they have already enough people cleaning up. I dont thing there are enough people for this big mess. Its going to take a long time to bring our beaches back as they were if we dont get as many people as we can to help. Hey guys come on everyone wanna to put their hands on it and finish this nightmare. What we all need is to be supplied with gloves and rubbish bags.
* Zippy19 from Papamoa Beach
Phill Goff turns up a week after the accident and complains about the Govt action, too busy campaining to support us locals. Now the greens want to stop all oil drilling, we have never had a major oil splil with drilling. They would be better baning all shipping as that is what has caused the problem.
* Vixen2 from Bellevue:
The whole Rena fiasco is a shambles. John Key is less than useless. President Harry S Truman had a placque on his desk that read: "the buck stops here". Shouldn't this apply to all of those in exalted positions like Prime Minister? Where is John Key's soul? Where is his authority? Why didn't he involve himself earlier and stop what is fast becoming a real ecological tragedy? I wouldn't vote for him if he were the only candidate in the running.
* gymbunny:
Long term, no cruiseships,If all containers fell into the sea what does this do for our port? Our Tourism? Our marine life? Our Coast? they pumped the oil to another hold , why did they not just take it off.
Now it will all end up on the coast. They said, it will not break up ? they said we know what we are doing?
It is so emotional to watch this unfold right on our backyard.
How many people are going to end up sick from the exposure to the toxic waste?
Who is going to pay for the seas crew to return to their country?
Why is the fine given to the Captain so low, this would not put a dent into the cost of this disaster.
So many questions?
Too late for answers?
* Alys Ingrid Wicksteed
'CRY FROM MOTITI ISLAND'
Who will assist us to clean this globular stinking mess off our 'rocky shore'?
Who will pay and give us concerned hope? No shops or rubbish collectors on the Island.
How long will it be before we can catch and eat our bounty from the sea?
Think of us in the days ahead. A ship took a 'shortcut' through 2 shipping lanes
and left us to face the 'disaster' it caused.
Wiki. Motiti Island
* Alan W from Welcome Bay
Having this example of incompetence in handling a minor oil spill, what confidence do we now have in the 'authorities' to manage a tsunami or other major calamity? Best we all look out for ourselves and one another - the planners and politicians certainly won't be.
Tommyinwa:
Why don't all you arm chair politicians go down the beach and help with the clean up instead of sitting at home whinging about what should and shouldn't have been done. Hindsight after the fact is a wondrous thing but I'm sure the aurthorities are doing everything they can in a very difficult situation.
Bernz from Otumoetai:
For heavens sake why on earth did Maritime NZ decline an offer of two inflatable barges which could pump up to 100 tonnes of oil at a time. The offer was made by Ronald Winstone, of Lancer Industries, who said the two barges would have easily emptied the ship of toxic oil in the four days of clear weather after the Rena ran aground. It would have taken them 17 trips to pump all the fuel off the ship and three or four days wouldn't have been unrealistic for that to have happened. And this offer was made last week when the weather was calm. It doesn't make sense why they didn't start pumping the oil off earlier when they had the equipment to do it. Martiime NZ's response was - if they need it they would have followed it up. Now we have to clean the oil up off our beautiful surf beaches and harbour foreshores - never mind about the amount of wildlife killed in the process of it washing ashore. Questions are going to be asked of our response team's decisions.
Madmen1 from Gate Pa:
saying we are responding quicker than other country's could is cold comfort...we had a weather window of 4 days to respond, didn't we?
CaptainMichael:
How dare Maritime NZ put out a statement saying that it was good that the lean had improved as it would allow staff to move around easier and less likely for containers to fall off. Absolute rubbish the containers were lashed down more after stranding and the movement now means all the stresses on the ship has changed. We are getting spin from the salvage company and Martime NZ, its horrifying
Jedmeister from Mount Maunganui
I said on the 1st or 2nd day after this happened, that if they didn't start pumping oil off right away then people would be extremely angry -- and sure enough, the authorities didn't pump the oil off and now we have a disaster.
I am speechless --why don't they tell us why they waited around for so long.
Madmen 1:
she's breaking up folks
containers are strewn across the seas off Tauraga and Rena is sinking so what happens now Maritime NZ?
Please tell us the truth around the best and worst case scenarios from now...we are all grown ups and deserve the truth we only want to help
Zookeeper from Papamoa Beach:
This ship is in a direct line to my house - I do not want any toxic chemical used to disperse this already toxic oil! Who is going to gaurantee the health of my small children when this product Corexit 9500 is still yet to have sufficient enough testing wether to deem it non-toxic enough to humans! Yes, it has been proven to be the 'least toxic' but I don't understand why we couldn't use the already tried and tested, proven NON-TOXIC method of peat moss last week when the weather was fine! Also, I would love to know if they have actually ever used this chemical along any shore-lines that are inhabited with humans as opposed to out in the deep ocean?
I was pissed off enough already that these muppets have disregarded EVERYTHING the locals have warned them about - which has already happened - now I'm really pissed off they are about to potentially harm my kids health too! Who's going to be accountable then? NO ONE!!!!
Please everyone - let's not let these "officials" who have clearly stuffed us around and got us into this preventable disaster if the first place - lay MORE CHEMICALS! When the oil is all cleaned up, the big wigs are back in their comfy chairs, it's you and me, and the rest of us who are going to be left with years of toxic build-up in OUR ENVIROMENT!
Papamoa25:
Bring back the stocks! Let's line up the Rena's driver and the ill-prepared NZ authorities, tie them up on poles at the beach and we can all fling oil at them. No risk of contaminating urban areas then!
Beachlovers are tired of waiting and we will start collecting the oil in earnest. Authorities need to distribute those big bins along the coastline, issue some protective gear, and let us get on with it.
Jak07 from Greerton:
'Cargo ships have an inbuilt tank heating system as this preheats the fuel in the tank chosen for use before it goes to the engine.so that lady to stand up and say that there was no point getting the oil barges there because of this is absolute rubbish'
Assuming, of course, that the vessel remains capable of generating its own power?.
Paul Morris:
We have a National Government that is more interested in selling assets rather than protecting assets within NZ. That is why we have a container crane sitting on a wharf in Auckland rotting away that will end up as scrap.
New Zealand does not have the infrastructure for these types of operations that are best dealt with by companies like Mamoth Shipping that would load the ship and all cargo onto another vessel in one foul swoop.
Crude oil has leaked into our oceans over billions of years and micro organisms within the marine ecosystem will break the oil down over time. Overseas places that were cleaned by man and dispersant's took longer to clear away than areas that were left to naturally cleanse. So are we cleaning the beaches for our own feel good actions or are we best to leave the majority to nature.
On a personal level I feel that by cleaning the beaches ourselves will go a long way to speeding up this natural process but other researchers are disagreeable. I will be featuring a section on www.diveplanet.co.nz about these very points! Our team is heading south to do all we can to help clean the foreshore and monitor the seals for signs of oiled marine life from a safe distance.
Looking at the positive side of things, we may end up with a major tourist attraction in years to come of another great wreck dive in New Zealand. But that is a long way off!
Facebook:
Margaret Walker:
I cannot believe that the Port of Tauranga did not have a pre-existing emergency plan in the event of such an incident as this. They must have surely, and if not why the hell not? This has happened before, may times, all over the world. Did we think it would never happen to us? Yes I am sure there are individuals who have done their best but it sounds as though there has been a lot of head scratching and that has lost us valuable time where we could have got to the Ship BEFORE the weather worsened and now our beautiful beaches, birds and sea life are being destroyed. This land and its shores deserves more respect. Accidents happen but if this was caused by neglect then the people responsible should be held accountable. I hope I can speak for most people in that we ARE WAITING for the call saying that we are allowed to help because we want to do the right thing.
Emma Cairns
sense lets hope thats all it is. I just hope people don't go to the court house and make it a mess for others who just want to get the job done. its how u attack the cleanup. yes he farked up and Im sure he is kicking himself for what happened. but don't dwell on him alone but what needs to be done on the water and beaches that have been affected
* Are the army now issuing face masks because of the oil - or because of the use of corexit 9500 - which I have just found out they bloody sprayed last week - thanks for the heads up officials!!! My kids have probably already ingested it! We go to the beach almost everyday!
How can we demand the answers? I'm sick of all this cover-up - I thought this was a non-corrupt country? How is this any different from dictatorship? Us locals have screamed our concerns - now stop with all the bull***t talk and give us some real answers! And maybe start with admitting fault! Isn't it amazing how a few stupid decisions have caused so much destruction - they should have listened to us last week - I have lost my faith with anyone in charge - it's obvious they don't know what they're talking about or procedures would have been put in place asap. This is NZ'S second biggest port - how could they stuff this up so badly? Everyone paid to be an oil repsonse officer should be crucified as much as the ship's crew - may as well chuck the head of Maritime NZ in too - it's their job after all to protect our waters - epic fail!
* Just wondering if anyone else has experienced headaches after going to the beach in recent days? How far are the fumes expected to travel? What implications does this have for public health?
I have volunteered for the cleanup, but am now starting to wonder how dangerous this stuff is!
* Hey john, five days for a tanker to arrive, five days for pumps i suggest you are of the mindset of the maritime nz that answering those two simple questions is to "complex". The best they can has resulted in this. period. so saddening
*
``One of the main tanks has been breached. It is very significant in the scheme of things.'' Now that the weather is against us, I can't help but think how much of this could have been mitigated by a quicker response system... when the weather was fine. Its not like we didn't have our window of opportunity.
* If anyone cared to do some research into oil salvage operations and ship groundings, you'd know that this has been a lightning fast response by international standards!
From what has been reported, the authorities in charge and the company responsible have done everything they can with the resources that were immediately available.
As soon as they got through all the MNZ and EBOP red tape and were appointed, the salvage company worked as quickly as they could to start pumping oil off the vessel.
I say everyone needs to have a little bit of faith in the authorities, shipping company and salvage company on this one.. they're doing the best they can until equipment gets here from overseas and all they can really do is wait for clear weather to pump oil from the vessel and keep applying dispersants to the slick.. booms will do little to nothing in this situation.
I hope all of you that are sitting at home starting to point fingers and demanding charges be laid or monetary compensation be paid to residents have made an actual effort to support your community and called 0800 OIL SPILL/0800 645 774 to register as a volunteer for the cleanup.
* John key just lost hs votes in tauranga and nz for the lack of government action this should never be taking so long to fix and stop Michelle Hope
* Let's learn something from this Rena episode. It is obvious that a long response time is required for planning and garnering resources before definitive action can be taken in possible disasters like this. P-L-E-A-S-E let's not allow offshore oil drilling to go ahead (Attention Petrobras!) off our east coast when a similar such mishap could result in consequences MUCH worse than this. Tell our National-led Govt that we want them to reverse their OK for deep sea oil drilling off our coast.
* Using Tauranga City Council as an example of the lack of support for RWC arrangements and their silence, I feel that another example of silence forthcoming when something needs to be said officially we can wait for a very long time for our MP Simon Bridges to make some announcements of any feelings or actions that he might have regarding the Astrolabe Reef grounding and its outcome.
* John Keys - your government acted recklessly, impulsively and was totally way over the top when you despatched your army/navy and Police to deal with a small band of Te Whanau a Apanui protesters over the petrobas fiasco. Sheer overkill Johnny!!! - I mean let's face it ... you can't have those bloody Eastern Bay Maori's causing mayhem now can you!!) ... yet here you are a few days later after this story broke still sitting on your freckle doing sweet FA to tackle what is now deemed a potential catastrophe.
Not much is mentioned regarding a containment plan Johnny - ooouuu now there's a start don't you think???? and Johnny it's time for you to'get a clue' and start fixing this now before it's too bloody late???
* Regarding the Rena grounding: I hope the words ALL BLACK will refer to the winners of the World Cup Rugby and not the losers in the oil spill: sea birds all black from being covered in oil :-(
* This episode raises very big questions over the state of preparedness for oil spills like this. We are constantly being reassured by the authorities and politicians that we are getting the best experts, the best of resources is being rushed here, everything possible is being done as fast as possible: it's all starting to sound like empty spin to me.
* I tell you Putin wouldnt of just gone home to his pad and had a vino. Wet blanket these politicans in charge and officials. Rob Service said it was "good" that the oil was blowing out to sea. Good- how do we save the animals we cant see. John Keys down tomorrow, whats the bet he goes back up to the rugby tomorrow so he can see his texting buddy Mccaw, i mean the oil aint likely to reach Omaha is it
* Teams of wildlife rescue staff have been sent to Motiti Island and Maritime New Zealand is also preparing to launch a shoreline clean-up in the event that oil reaches land.
* John key just lost hs votes in tauranga and nz for the lack of government action this should never be taking so long to fix and stop
* Are there booms around the oil to prevent it coming inland?
* Shipping Companies, Harbour Boards and Local Councils get involved first Michelle ... it isn't like removing a toy ship from the bath ...
* The Green Party polled in at under 3% in the recent BoP Times street survey - let's hope that "Rena-gate" wakes us all up to the fact that the Nats are only interested in acting urgently (or under urgency) if it suits their economic agenda and their big buddies in the marketplace. Wake up people - we are going under big time and Key and his cronies are happy to play in the band while the Titanic sinks beneath the waves . . .
Here are a selection of comments posted on Twitter.
