The company that was chartering a cargo ship at the time it ran aground on a New Zealand reef and began spilling tonnes of oil offered NZ$1m (about US$800,000) on Tuesday to help with the clean-up. Meanwhile, salvage crews have again halted attempts to pump the remaining oil from the stricken ship Rena due to bad weather. The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) announced on Tuesday that it was making what it described as a voluntary donation to the clean-up because it was "deeply concerned" about the toll that leaking oil is taking on the environment and the disruption it is causing to people's daily lives and businesses. "We wish to emphasise that MSC does not own the Rena, we did not employ its crew and we are not responsible for the maintenance and operation of the vessel," the company added in a statement. The owner of the Liberian-flagged ship is Greece-based Costamare Inc., which has said it is working closely with authorities to try and minimise the environmental damage from the grounding. New Zealand's transportation minister, Steven Joyce, said this week that the clean-up has so far cost NZ$4m, a figure that is likely to rise substantially. Hundreds of volunteers are helping to clean up beaches and restore surviving sea birds to health. About 1300 sea birds have died so far in the spill. Salvage crews managed to remove about 100 tones of oil from the vessel over 29 hours before deciding late Monday that weather conditions were making it too dangerous to continue. Crews managed to remove about 11 tonnes in a previous attempt. The ship, which became grounded on the Astrolabe reef near Tauranga on 5 October, was being battered by swells of up to four metres on Tuesday. Experts and officials are bracing for it to fall apart or sink at any time. An estimated 1400 tonnes of oil remains on board, while about 350 tonnes has already leaked into the sea near the coast, leading officials to describe it as the country's worst maritime environmental disaster.
