Maungatapu locals near the Hairini causeway are facing a clean-up operation this morning after an oil spill in Tauranga Harbour yesterday.

A leaking line on the berthed ship Olomana sent a stream of oil ashore across the estuaries yesterday, with high winds and rain hampering retrieval efforts.

Oil washed up the estuaries after a ship leaked into Tauranga Harbour on Monday. Photos: Tracy Hardy.

Moiri Place resident Dennis Duncan was checking the security of his jetty when he spotted the oil on Monday lunchtime, and Bay of Plenty Regional Council have responded today by sending a helicopter to survey the severity of the spill.

'It was raining pretty hard and the wind was coming in,” explains Dennis, 'so I went down to make sure the jetty wasn't getting moved around.

'When I got near to it I could smell oil, and when I got closer you could see it on the water. It was washing over the jetty.

'I rang the council straight away and they said they'd already had a call about it. I asked what they were doing about it but the woman on the phone said ‘I only take the calls'.

'She said it came from a spill in the harbour and looking at it this morning, you can see it all up in the grass and places like that.

'I'm concerned because the grandkids play in the water when the weather is good and it's usually pretty clean.

'There's a guy from the council walking around this morning but they haven't been in touch with us to let us know what's happening. It's really thick oil and it's disgusting.

'The news last night said it had come off a ship and I don't know why they didn't boom it when it happened.”

Speaking after the spill yesterday, Regional Council Oil Spill On-Scene Commander Adrian Heays said severe weather was making retrieval difficult, with booms proving ineffective due to the adverse conditions and heavy seas.

And despite their efforts, the oil seems to have reached way beyond the harbour. 'We're a long way from the port,” adds Dennis, 'but you can see it trapped all around here.

'We should have had a call from the council to let us know what is happening but we haven't heard anything.

'I'm sure they can do something to get rid of it, but if they don't come out soon I'll have to put some detergent on it and water-blast it because it's pretty thick.”

Another Maungatapu resident, Martin Neil, found out about the spill when his dog came bounding into the house.

'Our dog came in the house with oil on him and we were wondering where the hell it had come from,” says Martin.

'I checked the cars to see if they were leaking then came out the front to see a boiling black mess. This was about 5pm yesterday.

'They (council) said they were going to get a bobcat or a digger to pick it all up, but they're a bit late.”

The 5,000-tonne Olomana left the Port of Tauranga at 8am this morning on its way to Nuku'alofa in Tonga. The leak is at this stage believed to have come from the break in the fuel line somewhere under the Mount Maunganui wharf.

The heavy fuel oil is thought to have been pouring into the harbour for more than an hour on Monday morning.

The incoming tide and wind speeds climbing to the 1pm peak of 44 knots or 81km/h, saw a steady stream of the oil swept up the harbour and under the bridges.

Maungatapu resident Dennis Duncan.