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They’re off and running! The final 40 penguins from Mount Maunganui are back at sea after spending weeks getting scrubbed and washed at the Wildlife Recovery Centre in Tauranga, New Zealand.
About 360 blue penguins were rescued on October 5, when the container ship, Rena, grounded off the coast creating a massive oil spill. The operation required around 100 staff to care for the birds, with each of the penguins needing a meal prepared twice a day.
Nearly 100 happy feet waddle back to the ocean in New Zealand as 49 little blue penguins are cleared for release following their oil spill rescue last month. TODAY.com's Dara Brown reports.
Nearly 100 happy feet waddle to the shoreline of a beach near Tauranga, New Zealand. The 49 little blue penguins were released back into the wild after being rescued and cleaned up following the oil spill from the cargo ship, Rena, grounded off the coast.
The Rena ran aground on the Astrolabe reef in October.
The birds are the first of 340 which were rescued, and have had microchips implanted so they can be monitored for the next 12 months.
Meanwhile, salvage operations are continuing to remove all of the containers still aboard the ship, which has already spilled nearly 400 tons of oil.
New Zealand's environment minister is calling the spill the country's biggest maritime environmental disaster.
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Oil Spill Eater II, the New Zealand Maritime Organization has requested the OSEI Corporation to show them how effective OSE II is on their beaches and shorelines. New Zealand's recent oil spill has prompted them to find a more effective means to address spills. The use of dispersants that merely sink oil into the water column spreading the spills impact to where 60% of marine species live, only to have to address the same oil a second time as it washes up on the shores has become shown to gain nothing in spill response. The mechanical means of skimming and absorbing is costly, and allows over 90% of the oil to remain in the environment to compromise marine species, and adversely effect shorelines and seabed's. OSE II has cleaned up 1005 of over 18400 spills since 1989 and has become the clear choice.