Rehearsing response to a possible oil spill

Preventing oil leaking into the Bluff Harbour after the hull of a wooden fishing vessel was breached in high winds was the training scenario staff at Wednesday’s Environment Southland Marine Oil Spill Response Unit had to face.

Regional Harbourmaster and Maritime manager Lyndon Cleaver said on-water training was changed to an on-shore training session because of high winds creating a choppy sea.

High wind creating a chop on the harbour would always be a challenging situation for the response unit.

"The booms will only operate under certain tidal currents, and wind conditions before the boom collapses — then it’s of no use.

"So in this particular situation, if we had a major oil spill here in the harbour, then that’s something we would have to plan for and decide what’s the best alternative."

The service also had other equipment that was able to sweep the ocean’s surface to remove an oil spill and pump it into a holding tank.

When booms were unable to be used, alternatives needed to be considered such as a shoreline cleanup or the tide be allowed to sweep a spill out of the harbour where it could be contained and cleaned up away from the port.

Maritime New Zealand trained all regional responders from a group task force made up of staff from Environment Southland, Maritime New Zealand Fire and Emergency New Zealand, Southland District Council and the Regional Oil Spill Response Unit.

But the Port Maintenance Team was the first response unit that had the task of readying equipment for when the main crew arrived.

Bluff, like many of New Zealand’s port hosting large ship movements, was considered at risk of an environmental disaster where multiple issues could develop.

"The port area is always the highest risk area if something goes wrong." — APL