999 containers recovered from Rena
Rena salvage and recovery teams have recovered 999 containers from the Rena wreck.
Recovery specialists Braemar Howells and Unimar positively identified parts of three containers from the debris collected, which brought the total to 999.
A total of 1368 containers were onboard the Rena when the cargo ship hit the Astrolabe Reef nearly one year ago.
The joint recovery team removed about 20 tonnes of debris from the seabed around the Rena wreck as the bow section is cut away, over two days last week.
Braemar Howells operations manager Mike Richards said this was possible with the assistance of the 26m Tasman Challenger barge, which was specially fitted out for this role.
Some of the debris collected was scrap steel, scrap wire and aluminium ingots.
Mr Richards said further debris was pre-loaded into cages by divers on the seabed, ready to be picked up this week.
He said such endeavours within the two-mile exclusion zone around the Rena were influenced by suitable weather and timed around helicopter operations being carried out by salvors Resolve Salvage and Fire.
