Rena update (#220)

24 May 2012 - 2.17pm

Excellent progress has been made on container removal from the wreck site over the past week, with 21 containers removed from the bow section on Monday – the highest number of containers removed in a single day since the break up of the wreck. A further eight containers were removed on Tuesday.

Salvage

• Dive teams have also removed a significant number of bundles of aluminium ingots and other cargo and debris from the stern section of the wreck and the seabed.
• Smit-Svitzer salvage teams, working in joint partnership, are also removing hatch covers from the wreck, giving salvors access to the holds.
• Light to moderate winds and a sea state of around .5m are predicated at the Astrolabe Reef until Sunday, when winds are expected to rise to around 20 knots by Monday.

 

Container and debris recovery

• The number of containers recovered from the stricken Rena on Mount Mauganui’s Astrolabe Reef has risen above the 800 mark, with a total of 815 of the 1368 containers now brought to port.
• Braemar Howells’ operations manager Neil Lloyd confirmed the good weather and calm sea conditions had enabled the good progress, and also favoured continuing shoreline debris recovery operations.
• Two tonnes of debris, comprising small pieces of timber, were removed from Matakana Island yesterday.
• With most of the bigger debris removed from Coromandel and Bay of Plenty shorelines the cleanup operations were now focused mainly on bead recovery.
• Braemar Howells has teams stationed on Matakana Island in the Bay of Plenty and at Matapaua Bay, north of Tairua, in the Coromandel this week working on bead recovery.
• Meanwhile, the Braemar / Unimar team is continuing sonar operations this week, with identified seabed targets being investigated to ascertain whether they are containers.

 

Oil spill response

• Members of the public are encouraged to keep reporting any sightings of oil to the oil spill response hotline on 0800 OIL SPILL (0800 645 774).
• The oil spill response has been reduced from a Tier 3, or national level, to Tier 2, or regional level, response. Any queries about the oil spill response should now be directed to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.