Stop-and-start efforts to pump oil from the stricken Rena were hit with another setback today when a booster pump brought into speed up the process short-circuited shortly after pumping began at noon today.
Maritime New Zealand salvage unit manager Bruce Anderson said the blown pump was flown off the ship about 2.30pm and a spare unit was being installed to help clear the remaining 1260 tonnes onboard.
The oil was being fed from the Rena's port number 5 tank, with the next priority to access and clear fuel in the submerged starboard side tank.
Meanwhile, salvors have sealed the doors to the ship's engine room to keep out water and keep the Rena on Astrolabe Reef off the Tauranga coast.
Oil is continuing to wash up at points between Mt Maunganui and Maketu - where 800 bags of oil were recovered at Maketu Spit today - and response teams have been responding to reports of oil at Whakatane spit and Ohope spit.
National on-scene commander Ian Niblock said some oil about 20cm below the sand was causing problems and meant beaches would remain closed before it could be recovered.
The 45km exclusion zone around the Rena was still being reviewed by the Bay of Plenty harbourmaster this afternoon.
Environment Minister Nick Smith said the salvors had a window of five days but it would take a 10-tonne an hour pump rate to make him confident of being "out of the woods of this environmental disaster".
Protesters climbed trees and shouted through wire fences surrounding the Rena response control centre in an effort to have their opposition to deep-sea drilling heard.
About 70 people gathered at the former Foodtown supermarket after a crowd of at least 100 first made their presence known outside Tauranga District Court and on The Strand yesterday.
The group was protesting proposed oil drilling offshore from the East Cape at the Raukumara Basin.
The group was made up mostly of Greenpeace and Te Whanau a Apanui iwi members who came together to support fisherman Elvis Teddy, who is charged in connection with protest action.
Teddy was arrested for breaching the Maritime Transport Act after police boarded his protest boat in April amid protests against oil giant Petrobras off the East Cape.
He briefly appeared in Tauranga District Court yesterday and was further remanded on bail until December 8.