Volunteers respond to New Zealand oil spill

   An army of volunteers are helping clear the oil spill from the container vessel Rena which went aground on Astrolabe Reef near Tauranga, New Zealand last week.
   The government agency Maritime New Zealand said 17 of the 88 containers that have fallen off the ship have been recovered. It said salvage teams on the ship are trying to recover an estimated 1,346 tons of oil. The ship had 1,673 tons in its tanks.
   The agency said the effort to remove the fuel has become complicated, because without power, the fuel has gotten cold and dense, “like marmite.”
   Maritime New Zealand said some 3,000 persons have volunteered to help with the clean-up and another 1,000 people were expected on the beach tomorrow.
   “This is a unique situation, volunteers have not been used before in oil spill clean-ups and it shows the level of community commitment to this significant environmental issue,” said Maritime New Zealand’s National-On-Scene Commander Nick Quinn. “It’s a hard slog, back-breaking work and the volunteers are turning up and getting on with the job and the beaches are looking much cleaner.”
   Teams could be seen today on their hands and knees rolling up the oil, a method that limits the amount of sand that gets caught with the oil and waste.
   Meanwhile, Diamantis Manos, managing director of Costamare Shipping Co. appeared in a video apologizing for the casualty. Costamare chartered the ship to Mediterranean Shipping Co.