Islanders count cost of disaster

MARTY SHARPE

Last updated 07:00 14/10/2011

ANDREW GORRIE/Fairfax NZ

RUBBISH DUMP: Motiti Island kaumatua Graham Hoete surveys the bay where bundled plastic waste has washed ashore.

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LATEST: Motiti Island kaumatua Graham Hoete holds back tears when he sees the oil, timber and thousands of plastic bottles coating the coast he first swam from as an eight-year-old.

The stricken cargo ship Rena has been leaking oil and losing containers since it grounded on the Astrolabe reef off the Tauranga coast last Wednesday.

Last night, Maritime NZ said more than 350 tonnes of oil had spewed into the ocean. Only 10 tonnes had been removed from Rena and 1350 remained on board. Oil had washed up on Bay of Plenty beaches and nearby Motiti Island.

"It hurts right here," Hoete said, patting his chest.

Walking down through a pohutukawa forest on the steep hillside above Marumaru Bay at the island's northern end, he said he wanted the world to know the scale of damage.

He had just come from a meeting at the island marae where a Conservation Department official has told a small group of islanders that it would be many months before they can eat their kaimoana again, and food will be flown to the island for them at no cost.

The rocky coastline's referred to as "the supermarket" on the island.

"The seafood is our livelihood here. We come down and get enough for a feed and take it home. I don't know what we'll do. We're just going to have to forget about seafood for now," he said.

"I'm pretty hurt about it. For years, I've been watching ships go past the island. Some go this side of the [Astrolabe] reef, some go the other side. I always said one day they'd get caught out. Sure enough they have," he said.

"There's no way they'll get the oil off these rocks. They should leave it to Tangaroa [Maori god of the sea]. It will clean itself, but it will take a long time," he said.

He was angry at salvors for taking so long to start taking oil from the Rena.

"There's been too much hui, not enough do-ey. The oil should have come out when it was calm."

After walking on the rocks earlier yesterday he returned to his house with a pounding headache from the pungent fumes that can be smelt across much of the northern end of the island.

Hoete was raised on the island, home to 20 year-round residents, and has called it home for all but a few of his 67 years.

At the marae, locals were told to stay away from the oil, that containers falling from the Rena would likely be corralled off the island's west coast.

When told food would be flown to the island for them one man said "don't worry about food for us. We can look after ourselves. Look after the moana [sea]. That needs all the attention".

Teams to clean up the oil were due to arrive today, and residents could be trained to help.

At the southern end of the island, Vernon Wills, 74, looked over oil-stained rocks and containers smashing against the edge of his 113ha farm.

Wills, who had lived on Motiti for 32 years, was as upset as his friend Hoete about the Rena's stranding. "It's a shocker. We have a pristine environment out here. I'm not a religious guy but I always relate coming back here to walking into a church. You know how it sort of affects you?

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"I don't mind the containers coming in. That's easy to clean-up. It's the oil. I don't know how the fish will recover. I suppose what's done is done, and we have to get on with it, don't we?" he said.

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