UPDATE: NZ Salvage Crews Race to Pump Oil from MV Rena

As of Friday, salvage teams off the New Zealand coast have been preparing to pump the remaining fuel out of the cracked Rena as it lists at 25 degrees and faces imminent break up.
Although the weather conditions on Friday were calmer than previous days, a worker of a salvage company told BBC that the ship was still very dangerous to be working on as the cracked hull could allow the ship to break up at any time. 

300 tons of heavy fuel oil has already spilled from the hull, leaving kilometers of nearby beaches polluted.  Last week, salvage crews were only able to drain 10 tons from the vessel before bad weather forced them to suspend their operation.

On Friday the teams worked to install platforms and equipment on the high-listed side of the Rena to provide a base for more draining attempts.  They had hoped to resume pumping on Friday, but the complicated preparations have postponed the operation until Saturday, at the very earliest.  Matthew Watson of Svitzer salvage company told Reuters that there is some hope to pump on Saturday, but they cannot pin down any certain time frames due to how dangerous working on the Rena is.  Watson added that with the oil leak slowing they have a reasonable level of confidence that the stern tanks will hold.

An investigation into how the Daina Shipping Co.-owned and Ciel Ship Management-managed Rena grounded is underway, and environmentalists prepare for a possible wildlife disaster if all 1,700 tons of oil and 200 tons of diesel spill into the ocean. 

1,000 soldiers, wildlife experts, and NZ residents, as well as 3,000 volunteers have joined the clean-up operations.  An estimated 1,000 birds have died as a result of the oil pollution.