Maritime New Zealand Continues Rena Wreck Removal Work

Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) announces that it is continuing the Rena wreck removal work in a co-operation with the US Salvors Resolve.

The marine operations are being conducted after the extended period of bad weather, and according to Braemar Howells Operations Manager Neil Lloyd, Unimar teams were yesterday able to resume pre-rigging containers on the seabed, using a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV).

Howells explained: “We were able to pre-rig four containers, getting them ready to haul to the surface. The better weather has also allowed us, under instruction from Rena’s owners and insurers, to begin a visual look with the ROV at the seabed around the aft section of the wreck.”

Within the shoreline work Mr. Lloyd said that the work is focusing in particular on plastic beads, which are continuing to impact the Coromandel and as far down as Waihi Beach, where 100 bags of beads and flotsam have been recovered.

“There are 38 beaches on the Coromandel and they all require different recovery methods,” he adds. “The beads aren’t clumped together in large masses, but they are spread over a very wide area.”

The teams are using innovative solutions such as larger vacuum system called a ‘billygoat’ for resolving the problem. The ‘billygoat’ is a vacuum on wheels with brushes which can be driven along the high tide line, sucking beads into a collection bag at the back, and should be able to successfully conduct the removal operations.

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Subsea World News Staff , August 10, 2012;  Image: MNZ