Remaining oiled penguins freed | Bay of Plenty News | Local News in Bay of Plenty

The final group of oiled penguins were released yesterday, more than four months after the capsized Rena's oil first affected the Bay of Plenty coastline.

Seven little blue penguins were released by the National Oiled Wildlife Response Team yesterday morning, marking the last major release of wildlife affected by the Rena oil spill.

The penguins were all Motiti Island birds and were being cared for at Massey University in Palmerston North after the decommissioning of the Te Maunga wildlife site last month.

The birds were released near Motiti Island from a boat by members of the oiled wildlife team.

Oiled wildlife co-ordinator Kerri Morgan said the event was expected to be the last release of multiple birds rescued and treated for oiling.

"We still have two birds in care at Massey. One has an injury and the other is going through its moult. We will release those birds back into the Bay of Plenty when their health allows it," she said.

The first wildlife release was held on November 22 and, since then, birds have been released back into the wild as their health and their habitats were signed off as ready. At the height of the response, more than 400 birds were being cared for at Te Maunga.

Miss Morgan said the Bay of Plenty coast was now maintaining a healthy environment.

"Over the past month, our field teams have picked up only five oiled birds, despite regularly scouring the affected areas. This is really reassuring as it shows us that the amounts of residual oil in the environment are not having a significant effect on wildlife," she said.

National on-scene commander Mick Courtnell paid tribute to the wildlife team.

"The fact we have got to the point where we can count the number of affected birds left in care on one hand is a real milestone in the response and recovery operation.

"We are all tremendously proud of the wildlife response the team has mounted," he said.

But the whole job is not yet over. Mr Courtnell said the oil spill response was continuing with about 70 people in the field every day assessing the coastline and cleaning residual oil.

"It's important to recognise that while the bulk of the oil is safely off Rena and the bulk of the oil spilled has been cleaned up, we still face a threat from the wreck, in the form of a few pockets of oil that the salvors cannot reach,"Mr Courtnell said.

The exact amount of oil left on Rena is unclear but is estimated to be in the order of tens of tonnes.

Meanwhile, progress continues in removing containers and debris from the Rena. Fifteen more containers have been removed from the aft section.

In total, 514 containers have been recovered from Rena by salvors and processed ashore by Braemar Howells and another 70 containers have been recovered from land and sea by Braemar teams, bringing the total now ashore to 584.