Rough Weather on Tauranga Reef Halts 'Rena' Salvage
Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) liases with US salvors Resolve, meanwhile Braemar continues clean up work. With sea conditions remaining too rough for marine operations, Braemar Howells clean up teams have been hard at work tackling the fresh debris swept ashore on the Coromandel Peninsula in particular. Braemar Operations Manager Neil Lloyd says it has been the most prolonged weather event encountered since the project began. The stormy conditions have had a “significant impact” on the Coromandel and Matakana Island. The rough seas have forced a halt to work on pre-rigging submerged containers lying on the seabed around the Rena wreck site.
Braemar Howells Perform 'Rena' Cargo Recycling Coup
The Braemar recovery team recovered 167 tonnes of butterfat from the wrecked containership 'Rena' – now repackaged for recycling into biodiesel fuel. Braemar Operations Manager Neil Lloyd says that over the course of the project, some large quantities of cargo have been recycled. "Without the efforts of our team, including distressed cargo, port and waste specialists, and our local environmental partner, this would have been dumped into a landfill site. Neil Lloyd says that re-packaging the butterfat was a tricky task because the product was in bladders which had 'ballooned' out of shape when the cardboard boxes they were in disintegrated. "We designed equipment that allowed us to squeeze the semi-soft material into one metre containers holding one tonne each.
Container Recovery from RENA continues
RENA Container Recovery Passes 800 Mark. The number of containers recovered from the stricken Rena on Mount Mauganui’s Astrolabe Reef has risen above the 800 mark. 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 Monday, and a further eight on Tuesday. The good weather and calm sea conditions had enabled the good progress, and also favoured continuing shoreline debris recovery operations.
Container Ship Wreck 'Rena' Update
Svitzer salvors have made good progress in removing containers and cargo from Rena throughout the week. Dive operations to remove smaller pieces of debris and cargo have been undertaken. Divers are cutting into parts of the submerged stern section to gain access to containers for removal. The Braemar recovery team is investigating reports of debris washing ashore on Great Barrier Island. The team will fly over the island as soon as weather conditions are favourable to assess the situation.
