Rough seas off the coast of New Zealand have in what the New Zealand government is now calling the country’s worst-ever maritime environmental disaster. A leak in the container ship Rena has increased ten-fold since it struck the Astrolabe reef in the North Island Bay of Plenty last Wednesday. Salvage crews remain unable to reach the vessel in high ocean swells, raising the possibility that the ship could break up and release hazardous materials and more than 1,600 metric tons of heavy oil into the sea.
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