Cargo ship grounded off New Zealand

[BigV]

I've been hearing progressively scarier reports of this event. What's it like locally I wonder?

Oct 14 (Reuters) - Salvage experts were preparing on Friday to pump more oil off a stricken container ship off the New Zealand coast as businesses started to count the cost of the country's worst environmental disaster in decades.

The Liberian-flagged Rena has been stuck for nine days on a reef 14 miles (22 km) off Tauranga on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, spilling about 300 tonnes of heavy toxic fuel and some of its hundreds of containers into the sea.

Splits down the middle of the hull of the 236-metre (775-foot) ship have raised fears it will break apart spilling hundreds more tonnes of oil.

Salvage teams were back on board the 47,230-tonne ship preparing to cut holes in the stern to get to the tanks holding about 1,000 tonnes of fuel.

"It's complex, it's hard, it's difficult and they will start pumping as soon as they can," Maritime NZ spokesman Bruce Anderson told reporters.

Shit!