Photos on this page supplied by Bryan Gibson
MASTER CLASS real victims of rena
The Real Victims of Rena
What happens when one of the richest wildlife habitats in New Zealand is hit with over 350 tonnes of oil?
ONE MORNING LAST OCTOBER, Massey University vet Kerri Morgan woke to a call she'd been dreading. A container ship was grounded off Tauranga, holding
1,770 tonnes of crude fuel oil, all of which could potentially leak into the Bay of Plenty – one of the richest wildlife habitats in New Zealand. Having trained for almost 15 years, the National Oiled
Wildlife Response Team, which Morgan leads, along with Helen McConnell, was be deployed to its biggest environmental disaster yet. The team was on the scene in Mount Maunganui within
hours on October 6 and was able to begin washing the first oiled birds just two days later. Purpose-built facilities housed in a shipping container, and designed and built by Palmerston North's, Bill Dwyer, formed the basis of the wildlife facility. Soon it became clear that more capacity was needed,
and very quickly the facility grew into a tent city including triage, oiled bird holding facilities, a washroom, swimming pools and aviaries for clean birds, and pathology.
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