1
00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:04,840
Speaker 1: The potential echo catastrophe the Mono Manui. This is in Samaira.

2
00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:09,399
Speaker 1: Videos captured near the site yesterday of the grounding showing

3
00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:12,480
Speaker 1: a turtle struggling to swim in a thick oil slick

4
00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:15,960
Speaker 1: with shipping containers, planks of wood and life jackets floating nearby.

5
00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:19,200
Speaker 1: Nick Ling is the associate professor at Warcuter University School

6
00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:21,000
Speaker 1: of Medicine. He's with us this morning, Nick, Good.

7
00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:23,200
Speaker 2: Morning, Yeah, good morning, right, how are you?

8
00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:26,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm good, thank you. So this oil, let's first

9
00:00:26,239 --> 00:00:28,880
Speaker 1: of all, there's a thousand tons of it. This is

10
00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:33,600
Speaker 1: not Arina grade heavy oil. This is engine oil.

11
00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:39,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, so as I understand it, unlike the fuel oil

12
00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:42,000
Speaker 2: that was on the arena, which was called heavy fuel oil,

13
00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:45,360
Speaker 2: this is a much lighter grade. So it's more similar

14
00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:48,879
Speaker 2: to automotive diesel oil. So the thing is with these

15
00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:53,960
Speaker 2: ship oils is that they contain a mixture of different hydrocarbons.

16
00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:57,480
Speaker 2: And obviously the stuff that we burn in our cars

17
00:00:57,560 --> 00:00:59,480
Speaker 2: is a very light grade. And so if you leave

18
00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:02,000
Speaker 2: that too, if you have the spill of that, it

19
00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:06,240
Speaker 2: would just simply evaporate away. So the stuff that's on

20
00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:10,000
Speaker 2: the Manuwanui is a light grade of shipping fuel oil,

21
00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:13,960
Speaker 2: and so much of the material that was released in

22
00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:17,920
Speaker 2: the early spill would have evaporated off and that leaves

23
00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:21,680
Speaker 2: a residue of the sort of heavier components, and that's

24
00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:25,920
Speaker 2: what would have been observed yesterday in the video of

25
00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:29,520
Speaker 2: that struggling turtle. And obviously, you know those sort of

26
00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:32,319
Speaker 2: marine animals, anything that has to interact with the surface,

27
00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:34,560
Speaker 2: like those turtles that have to come to the surface

28
00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:37,039
Speaker 2: to breathe, they will then encounter that.

29
00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:42,560
Speaker 1: And the case that stays on the surface, does it.

30
00:01:43,080 --> 00:01:48,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Well, as the spill progresses, much of those

31
00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:52,160
Speaker 2: lighter components will evaporate and then finally the last stage

32
00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:54,920
Speaker 2: is that you'll get sort of tari deposits which will

33
00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:57,160
Speaker 2: actually be heavier than the water, and they will then

34
00:01:57,240 --> 00:01:59,200
Speaker 2: finally sink as tar balls to the bottom.

35
00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:02,120
Speaker 1: Right, And how big is this? How big of a

36
00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:05,040
Speaker 1: deal is this a thousand tons?

37
00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:08,440
Speaker 2: It's certainly pretty big. So that's about three times the

38
00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:12,680
Speaker 2: amount of oil that was released from Marena wreck. But

39
00:02:12,919 --> 00:02:16,680
Speaker 2: certainly the media reports yesterday of the first assessment of

40
00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:20,079
Speaker 2: the wreck by divers are very encouraging in that they're

41
00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:24,200
Speaker 2: not showing any leakage currently and that would suggest that

42
00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:27,360
Speaker 2: almost all of that is contained within the wreck. So

43
00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:32,560
Speaker 2: obviously the next priority would be to remove that material

44
00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:35,040
Speaker 2: through salvaging the wreck.

45
00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:38,200
Speaker 1: Right, is there a risk actually getting SALVO vessels in

46
00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:39,520
Speaker 1: there that we might have a pile up?

47
00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:44,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, well certainly. You know, obviously it's right next to

48
00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:49,440
Speaker 2: a reef and it's a fairly exposed place, so there

49
00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:54,799
Speaker 2: is the potential hazard of working in that area when

50
00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:59,000
Speaker 2: you're sending other marine assets into that area. But it's

51
00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:03,760
Speaker 2: not impossible to do that obviously. The experts salvas are

52
00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:05,520
Speaker 2: used to working in those sort of conditions. I mean

53
00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:07,200
Speaker 2: that was the case with the Arena as well. The

54
00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:09,519
Speaker 2: salvers had to work right next to the reef in

55
00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:11,919
Speaker 2: a very exposed area, and so it's just a case

56
00:03:11,919 --> 00:03:12,920
Speaker 2: of managing that risk.

57
00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:16,560
Speaker 1: So best case scenario here, Nick, we have most of

58
00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:20,000
Speaker 1: the oil apparently still contained within the vessel. If we

59
00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:23,639
Speaker 1: can get in there Selvo, the environmental impact might be

60
00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:25,640
Speaker 1: quite small.

61
00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:29,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, potentially, Yeah, I mean obviously there's potentially other

62
00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:30,960
Speaker 2: things on the wreck as well. I mean that was

63
00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:33,160
Speaker 2: the case with the Arena. You know, it had contained

64
00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:35,600
Speaker 2: as a dangerous goods on board. We don't know what

65
00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:39,040
Speaker 2: else is on the Manawanui at this stage, you know,

66
00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:41,600
Speaker 2: potentially there's munitions and those sort of things that might

67
00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:44,480
Speaker 2: be on a naval ship and they would need to

68
00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:47,880
Speaker 2: be salvage as well. But certainly the initial assessment seems

69
00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:51,560
Speaker 2: very encouraging that the wreck is fully intact, that's sitting

70
00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:54,160
Speaker 2: on the bottom at a reasonable depth. It's only thirty

71
00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:58,880
Speaker 2: meters deep. That means it's accessible by normal divers. The

72
00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:03,240
Speaker 2: fact that it's intact means that removing the oil should

73
00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:07,640
Speaker 2: be a much more simple task, and potentially salvaging the

74
00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:13,040
Speaker 2: entire wreck and removing it entirely is obviously easier to

75
00:04:13,080 --> 00:04:15,200
Speaker 2: do when the reck is intact rather than broken up.

76
00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:17,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's a good point, and it's only thirty

77
00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:20,479
Speaker 1: meters deep, so that is potentially a possibility. Nick, Thank

78
00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:22,880
Speaker 1: you so much for your time. Nick Ling, Associate Professor,

79
00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:25,160
Speaker 1: School of Science at why katz A University, saying that

80
00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:28,680
Speaker 1: scigns are looking good in terms of the environmental impact.

81
00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:32,120
Speaker 1: There for more from News Talks B listen live on

82
00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:35,120
Speaker 1: air or online and keep our shows with you wherever

83
00:04:35,160 --> 00:04:37,760
Speaker 1: you go with our podcasts on IR Radio