Rena update (update 121)

1 December 2011: 10.45am

Bad weather yesterday prevented any container recovery from the Rena.

• The total number of containers removed from the wreck so far is 166.
• Despite swells preventing any crane operation yesterday, salvors were still able to work on board Rena, focusing on the installation of rigging to prepare containers for removal, and the ongoing skimming of residual oil from the wreck.
• A dive operation was also undertaken yesterday, assessing the reef around Rena in anticipation of moving Sea Tow 60 once it has removed all the containers within reach of its current position. It is not yet known when this will be done.
• There is no change to the state of Rena.
• The weather forecast for today is for swells of up to 3 metres, and it is unlikely container recovery will be possible today.
• Container processing on shore by Braemar Howells is continuing well with 160 containers landed at the port. Of these, only four are yet to be processed at Truman Lane.
• Braemar Howells specialists are working on White Island and Motiti Island today to locate and recover container debris around the shoreline.
• Oil spill response clean-up teams are working at Leisure Island and Mount Maunganui using warm water washing to clean residual oil from the rocky shoreline.
• There are also clean-up teams working near Papamoa using beach grooming machinery, and at Maketu.
• To date, a total of 962.6 tonnes of solid waste has been collected by oil spill response clean-up teams.
• Volunteers working with Operation Beach Clean are working at Motiti and Papamoa today.
• People wanting to help with the ongoing beach clean-up are encouraged to join the "Adopt a Beach" programme, by emailing renavolunteers@gmail.com or calling 0800 884 881 ext RENA (7362).

MEDIA PLEASE NOTE:

From today on, we will provide one update a day, at around 10.30am. This will give the number of containers recovered in the previous 24 hours and a running total of containers recovered, as well as any updates or changes in the condition of the Rena, and developments in the ongoing oil spill response and wildlife recovery operations.

On Thursdays, we will provide a weekly summary, with detail of the previous week's activity, as well as information on planned operations for the week ahead. The first of these weekly summaries will be provided on Thursday 8 December.