Salvors' progress slow | Bay of Plenty News | Local News in Bay of Plenty

Steady, slow progress continues to be made aboard the stranded bow of the Rena.

The labour-intensive work cutting and grinding containers and removing contents by hand is continuing, but at a much slower pace than earlier crane work.

Salvors are averaging now around one container and its contents per day.

The focus is on removing 14 formerly refrigerated containers above decks on the forward part of the vessel, as well as four containers containing wood.

This work is estimated to take up to three weeks, but is dependent on weather conditions and salvor safety.

Four tonnes of scaffolding is being erected by stevedores to allow access to these containers.

All milk powder from containers has now been removed from Rena but the McDermott heavy-lift helicopter continues to remove the remains of damaged containers.

Sensors on the forward part of Rena are detecting movement; the wreck is heaving and rolling but remains fast on the reef. Sensors have also now been installed on the aft section.

Weather forecasts are good, with winds expected to increase to about 20 knots yesterday afternoon, with seas of 1.7m. Conditions for today look favourable.

To date, 479 containers have been removed from Rena, with an additional 70 recovered from the water.

Braemar Howells will be heli-lifting more loads of stacked timber from Matakana Island today. About 70 lifts were carried out on thursday, with the helicopter transferring the timber to a barge waiting offshore to take it to the port.

Remote Orokawa Bay, north of Waihi Beach, has also been completely cleared.

Timber, and a container that was part-submerged in the shallows, have all been removed. The helicopter lifted eight loads from Orokawa Bay.

Clean-up teams working at Mount Maunganui and Leisure Island estimate there is only about a week's worth of work left before the area can be signed off as clean.

No new oiled wildlife have been reported. Two penguins and one grey-faced petrel were released yesterday, with six penguins scheduled for release later next week. One bird remains in care.