Bay of Plenty safe after oil spill threat

The Lady Luck sinks on Friday. Picture / Bay of Plenty Times

The threat of a diesel spill endangering marine life, after last week's grounding of a fishing boat off Mt Maunganui, has abated.

Environment Bay of Plenty has been closely watching for signs of a spill since fishing boat Lady Luck struck rocks near Motiti Island, about 20km off Mt Maunganui, on Friday morning.

The four crew members were rescued from a liferaft.

Council commander for pollution control Nigel Drake said the vessel was 500m off shore, lying on its port side with a 4-5m gash on its starboard bow.

The vessel had about 1200 litres of diesel in its tanks and there were concerns the tanks could break up and the diesel spill out.

Acting harbourmaster Jim McMaster said today there had been no sign of a spill.

"There was only a sheen of oil that appeared from the wreckage, and that was monitored the next day."

Mr McMaster said they were organising a salvage attempt today, including retrieving the two diesel tanks that were thought to be lying on the seabed.

Everything that could be recovered would be, he said.

"The hull was virtually destroyed and has finished up on the beach at Motiti in various sized sections."

Mr McMaster said it was unclear if the diesel was still in the tanks.

"At the time the weather was sufficiently bad and it's probably not had any significant impact on the environment at all.

"It's only diesel oil, it's not heavy oil so it's probably dissipated with the weather. There's no evidence of it on the beach -- or very little evidence."

- NZPA