RENA Update from Maritime NZ (189)
Friday, 2 December 2011 5:20 p.m.
See below the latest update from Maritime NZ. (www.maritimenz.govt.nz)
- Bad weather yesterday prevented any container recovery from Rena.
- The total number of containers removed from the wreck so far remains at 166.
- The weather forecast for today and the weekend is for heavy rain, culminating in winds of up to 25-30 knots on Sunday night, with sea swells of up to 3m. It is unlikely any container recovery operations will take place for the next few days.
- The crane barge Sea Tow 60 is currently in sheltered water nearMōtītīIsland, waiting for clearer weather before returning to its site at Rena.
- However, despite swells preventing any crane operation, salvors are still able to work on boardRena. They are being winched onto the wreck by helicopter as the sea state will not allow them to get on board from vessels.
- Yesterday, Svitzter focused on installing rigging to prepare containers for removal.
- Today, salvors will focus on attaching patches to damaged sections ofRena, to aid its stability. Work on attaching the first patch on the port side will begin this morning.
- Observation flights this morning reported a narrow sheen of light oil coming from the vessel approximately 30-40 metres wide and three kilometres long
- Ongoing monitoring of the wreck via electronic sensors shows no change to the state of Rena.
- Container processing on shore by Braemar Howells is continuing well with 160 containers landed at the port. Six containers removed fromRenaearlier this week are expected to be landed today to be processed by Braemar Howells at Truman Lane.
- Braemar Howells specialists are working on White Island and Mōtītī Island today to locate and recover container debris around the shoreline.
- Oil spill response clean-up teams are working at Mauao (Mount Maunganui) using warm water washing to clean residual oil from the rocky shoreline.
- There are also clean-up teams working at Moturiki (Leisure Island), and Matakana Island.
- Site inspections are being cariied out at Maketu and Moturiki to assess if the sites are ready for the safe release of wildlife.
- The wildlife team expects to release around 15 dotterel at Maketū tomorrow afternoon. Public and media can attend the release. Details of the release will be provided in a media advisory later today.
- Volunteers working with Operation Beach Clean are working atPāpāmoaBeachand Te Tumu today removing oil exposed by recent heavy winds.
- 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).