A spill of 13,000 litres of diesel fuel into New Zealand’s pristine Milford Sound is being investigated by police as a deliberate act of sabotage.
The spill was discovered at 0600 local time on Sunday by the crew of the tourist boat Milford Monarch. A hose had been connected to the boat’s fuel tank, causing the fuel to gush into the fjord and form a two-kilometre-long slick.
A clean-up operation was launched immediately, and continued on Monday, with booms, pumps and absorbent materials used to contain and mop up the fuel. According to local government agency Environment Southland, most of the diesel-contaminated water has now been removed.
Milford Sound is part of a World Heritage-listed national park, and is one of the country’s most popular ecotourism destinations. “This is a pristine area of great biodiversity and it’s a tragedy that a spill of any description has happened. It’s even worse to imagine that anyone would want to destroy such an area,” Carmen Gravatt, an oceans campaigner with Greenpeace New Zealand toldNew Scientist.
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Crested penguins
Milford Sound is on the southwest side of New Zealand’s South Island. It is home to a range of wide range of wildlife, including seals, dolphins, ducks and endangered Fjordland Crested penguins.
Local people have been patrolling the affected region in boats, trying to scare animals away. Wildlife agencies are still evaluating the impact of the spill, but so far it appears to be minimal, with only a few diesel-coated ducks needing treatment and no deaths reported.
There had been fears that Fiordland Crested penguins would be particularly vulnerable because they are currently moulting their waterproof coats. But during the moulting, the birds stay on land and they have been successfully kept away from contaminated parts of the shoreline.
All tourist activities have been suspended. Dave Hawkey, CEO of Real Journeys, which operates the Milford Monarch, says it has no idea why anyone would want to deliberately leak fuel from the boat.
Gravatt says there have been no similar recent acts of deliberate contamination in New Zealand. And the police say that at present they have no suspects.
But the rapidly rising number of visitors numbers to the region has caused concern, said local conservation minister Chris Carter. One suggestion is that the spill is the work of someone opposed to the tourist influx.
