Oil Spill: Tempers flare at meeting | Bay of Plenty News | Local News in Bay of Plenty

Police were called to a public meeting about the Rena last night after tempers flared - and an expert says our beaches won't be safe for swimming until at least Christmas.

Three police officers turned up at the packed hall at Mount Maunganui College after a man interrupted Maritime New Zealand director Catherine Taylor to tell her to "get over" her PR speech and tell those gathered exactly what toxic chemicals were in the containers on the ship.

Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby stepped in to calm the situation before police arrived and stood at the back for the remainder of the meeting.

Emotions ran high as one Mount Maunganui local attempted to rally support for the community to ignore officials and head to the beach to clean up the oil - something he and others admitted they had been doing for days.

The evening gathering followed a more subdued public meeting in Papamoa yesterday afternoon. At both meetings, Ms Taylor acknowledged Maritime New Zealand's communication with Western Bay people, some of whom registered as volunteers days ago, could have been faster. "If we were a bit tardy then I apologise but it has been very busy. There will be lessons learnt, there always are. If there is one that is it," she said at the Papamoa meeting.

Many at the Mount Maunganui meeting said they had gone to the beach themselves since the clean up and got stuck in but were hoping for better resources tomorrow. Ms Taylor said prompt communication with the community would become part of Maritime New Zealand's future contingency plans for responding to oil spills.

A number of questions at both meetings centred around the dispersant Corexit 9500.

Ms Taylor confirmed 3190 litres of the chemical had been sprayed offshore on the oil using helicopters, due to the potential threat to sea birds and mammals. However, she said dispersant had proved ineffective and would not be used again.

The wildlife rescue centre at Te Maunga last night reported 500 dead birds had been recovered and 76 live were being washed and cared for.

University of Waikato Professor Chris Battershill said scientists could track whether the dispersant was moving up through the food chain. "If it's there, we'll know about it," he said.

Due to the dispersant being spread off-shore in deep water it was unlikely any Corexit 9500 would make it to shore.

After questioning at both meetings Ms Taylor confirmed the organic absorbent Spill-Sorb was being trialled on the oil spill at Maketu.

Questions also centred around when the Bay's beaches would be safe to swim in again. Mr Battershill said in the last 10 oil spills across the globe no one had been able to predict the ongoing impact. However, if the beach clean-up was effective he hoped the sea would be safe to swim in again by Christmas. He said the small globs of oil which were difficult to collect would break down over time, aided by micro-organisms in the sand.

Divers had been in the water on Thursday, Friday and Saturday identifying key ecological areas in need of protection and generating baseline data on marine environments before they were hit with the oil, he said.

"We can now track how the area is going to recover."

He said studies of the trajectory of the oil spill had proved to be extremely accurate which helped in planning the response to the high risk areas.

MP for Tauranga Simon Bridges closed last night's meeting by encouraging the community to show "maturity, dignity and patience" in the coming days and stressed the time for incrimination would come.

"None of us in this room caused this. What's happened is a tragedy for all of us but we're all in this together," he said.