Situation in Tauranga

[Eric Lim]

Hi Mark,
I'm joining the Kaiser group for next week fishing in Tauranga.Can you give me an update on the oil spill in that area?
Cheers,
Eric

[Stu Hardy]

As of today heavy fuel oil is leaking and soiling the beaches. Plus 70 odd containers have fallen off and are floating around. I am sure Mark Armistead will know the full story.

[Mark Armistead]

Yes its a very sad story here in tauranga.
Rest assured to all those coming over we are looking at options to get you all out on the water and into some quality fishing.
I will be keeping a close eye on developments and updating those involved with trips as we know whats going on.
Cheers Mark

[Eric Lim]

Thanks for the reply Mark.Look forward to seeing you soon.

[Eric Lim]

What are the other option you are looking into if the situation does not turn for the better?I heard that Tauranga is a off limit fishing zone now.Will there be a compromise for quality of fishing as all the guys are looking for purely topwater fishing.

[Kasey Leong]

The black cat strikes again! 

[Cam Foley]

Im sure Mark is doing his best to sort out other options and there is other options ,only a small drive away with plenty of good fish at this time of the year, dont panic Mark is on the job.

[colin tecofsky]

  Not sure I'd belive a man with a rubber glove on his head and a mask on Stella

[Greg Burt]

Especially when he thinks it's normal 

[Cam Foley]

Is that not normal,would explain all the funny looks.

[Mark Armistead]

Ok guys here is where we are at.
This bloody ship is a pain in the arse for all of us, not just my business but many others as well, not to mention the environment as well.

On the positives here. The oil has so far mainly come inshore where teams are cleaning it up rapidly. At this stage mayor Island is unaffected and this area is the number one top water fishing area in the bay, so with a bit of luck we will soon be back out there and into them. On a side note the last 5 days fishing out there was really hard but they are well overdue to come on the chew.
Mayor island failing then we will be taking our groups up somewhere North or east, either Whitianga or Waihau Bay. Now i fished these araes many times in the past and there will be no worries with the quality of the fishing, these araes recieve very little pressure and are not often fished with top water gear so the potential is massive. One of these araes alos has a spot where me and two mates landed 200 kingfish in one day!!! so they must be ok.
The weather has settled today and should be for a few days, with a bit of luck they will get all the oil of this heap of crap ship. The containers i am not sure about, but teams are working bloody hard to retrieve them all and from what i understand a crane barge is in the area and will hopefull get them off.
On a negative the immediete area around Astrolabe reef will no doubt be severly damaged, this saddens me deeply as it is one of the most special areas in the Bay. It is alsio home to monster kingfish, like the one that stole Bunzos Gamma last year, or was that someone elses gamma. it is also a home to many seabirds, big sharks marlin and massive schools of kahawai. My other favorite spot schooner rock where Malcolm and Chris had a blinder day last year may also be affected, but fingers crossed it escapes most of the drama.
Anyway i have my chinup and we will fight through this, 2011 has been a toguh year for us but our family is made of tough stuff so dont expect us to be going anywhere fast.
Cheers Mark Armistead

[Patrick Cooper]

Thanks for the update Mark,
it pains me to see such a terrible tragedy and even more so that it was easily avoidable and caused by human incompetence... see you in 2 weeks!

[Greg Burt]

Thanks for the updates Mark, always other spots in the area.
 The Gamma was Cam's but I blamed you for having us in 5m of Water 
I'm over in two weeks for a week so fingers crossed, my backup is a second week down south netting Whitebait  .
Here is a typical Astrolabe Kingie caught on a Cherry Pai.

[Mark Armistead]

Ha ha. 5 metres of water and Gammas is my idea of fun, especially when they are not my gammas.
I guess we should have got on the gas and got out of that area instead of trying for that double hookup. Hind sight is wonderful after the fish has busted you off.

Another update for you all, the oil did not come onto the beach today and has drifted out to sea, still not great but at least the locals have had a day where the beach didnt turn black.
Its hard to sya how bad this will all end up, they now have a barge out there trying to pump off oil. I hear a big chopper is on the way to help with containers and some aussie crane barges are on the way to get rid of containers. So fingers crossed it will not end up too bad, i need to remain optomistic!!

So far Mayor is still ok so you just never know we may end up not having to go too far yet.

[Mark Armistead]

Oil is getting pumped out of the ship and so far progress is slow. But it is happening.
Today it is pretty rough here but then we have some nice weather coming for quite a while, so if the ship holds together through this rough patch then they should be able to get in and get the oil off.
Containers will then be next.
Just been to a talk form Maritime NZ and it was pretty optimistic, if the ship holds together then the salvage plans should be all good.
Very hard task for them and we all have our fingers crossed it will go well.
We are off to Whitianga tommorow and will conduct business up there until things settle down.
We may be back here sooner than later.
Cheers Mark