Ensuring objectivity by applying the Mauri Model to assess the post-disaster affected environments of the 2011 MV Rena disaster in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
- Author
- Tumanako Ngawhika Faaui, Te Kipa Kepa Brian Morgan, Daniel Carl Henare Hikuroa
- Year
- 2017
- Journal / Source
- Ecological Indicators
- Volume
- 79
- Pages
- 228-246
- Keywords
- Rena
- Summary
- The 2011 MV Rena grounding on Otāiti (Astrolabe reef) in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand is considered to be New Zealand’s worst maritime environmental disaster and one of the most expensive shipwreck and oil spill salvage and recovery operations ever undertaken, with the clean-up currently costing in excess of $660 million (NZD) (Schiel et al., 2016; Beca, 2014). The resultant environmental impacts due to the fuel oil spilled and flotsam were also experienced anthropocentrically as economic, social and cultural impacts. The presence and consideration of impacts experienced by the indigenous groups of the impacted regions within the on-going recovery process is a major contributing factor to the uniqueness of this scenario internationally. The scale and complexity of impacts from this disaster is without precedent in New Zealand. The consideration of past and potential future impacts is especially significant in present times, with the resource consent application to leave the remnants of the wreck and associated debris in place on the reef and seabed, being granted on February 26 2016.