First stage of Rena salvage ends a month ahead of schedule
The first stage of salvage operations of the cargo ship MV Rena have ended a month ahead of schedule following the removal of all but 18 inaccessible containers from the wreck, Ship and Bunker reports.
The vessel sank after running aground on the Astrolabe Reef near the port of Tauranga, New Zealand on October 5 last year with the country's Environment minister, Nick Smith, calling it their "most significant maritime environmental disaster."
A total of 940 containers from the Rena are now reported to have been brought ashore with 428 remaining.
Salvage company Braemar Howells has said that recent low swell conditions enabled it to lift 5 containers from the seabed with any containers in water less than 50 meters deep to be lifted in the coming weeks.
Attentions will now turn to the removal of the wreck and the owners and insurers of the Rena have already issued a tender for that work.
The salvage team from Svitzer and Smit is set to leave the site, with Braemar Howells continuing to monitor the wreck.
"We've established an exclusion safety zone which is being patrolled 24-7, and so far there have been no incidents or releases," Braemar Howells operations manager Neil Lloyd said.
The Rena is expected to be left on the reef over winter.
The New Zealand Government has stated it's intention to retrieve any taxpayers' money spent on the incident from the ship's owners.
In February the total amount had already exceeded $130 million.
