Rena salvage operations continue

May 23, 2012—Salvors continue to work to remove containers, pieces of hatch covers and debris from the bow section of the containership M/V Rena, which struck Astrolabe Reef off of Tauranga, New Zealand, on October 5, 2011. The containership split in two this past January.

The number of containers recovered from the stricken Rena on Mount Mauganui’s Astrolabe Reef has risen above the 800 mark, reports Braemar Howells.  A total of 815 of the 1,368 containers have now been brought to port.
 
Braemar Howells’ operations manager Neil Lloyd confirmed numbers were boosted this week with 21 containers landed on May 21, and a further eight on May 22.
 
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.