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A boat that became partly submerged in the Marlborough Sounds, sparking fears of an oil spill, is being refloated.
The 56-foot launch, named the Padrone, was found sunk on its mooring near Waitaria Bay jetty in Kenepuru Sound on Tuesday, carrying 2000 litres of diesel and 60 litres of engine oil.
On-scene commander Pete Hamill told Local Democracy Reporting on Wednesday morning that there had been no sign of an uncontrolled oil spill overnight.
At 1.45pm, Pete said airbags had been placed underneath the hull, and water was being pumped out, with the hope of getting the boat to float by itself by the evening.
A fuel transfer, to remove the diesel, would be conducted on Thursday, Pete said.
While the water around the Padrone had a “slight sheen”, what little oil had spilt was contained by oil-absorbent booms, he said. Absorbent pads were being used to “sop that up”.
Once the boat could float, Pete planned to send divers down to investigate why the Padrone had sunk in the first place.
Pete and a team of trained oil spill responders had been called to the submerged boat at 11am on Tuesday.
No-one was on the boat at the time. The owner had noticed that morning that the stern had sunk to the bottom of the relatively shallow bay, Pete said on Tuesday evening.
The responder team arrived in Waitaria Bay at 3.30pm, deploying a “sausage-like” oil absorbent boom, and an orange fence-like rapid deployment boom to contain any spill.
What oil did appear was mainly bilge oil, “that stuff that's in around the engines and the lights”, as opposed to the diesel fuel or engine oil, Pete said.
The Waitaria Bay jetty remained open.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
