Survey will look at Rena volunteers

A study into the experiences of the volunteers who cleaned up Rena's oil is being undertaken.

The University of Waikato, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and Bay of Plenty Regional Council have banded together to carry out the research project.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council senior land management officer Pim de Monchy, who was seconded to Maritime NZ as volunteer coordinator, said the aim of the research was to provide insight into the volunteer experience and to assist with future volunteer planning and volunteer response efforts.

"Our Operation Beach Clean volunteers were a really unique bunch, we had a phenomenal response from volunteers and they made an amazing contribution toward the clean-up efforts."

"We want to document this as much as we can and learn from our volunteers' experience," Mr de Monchy said.

A survey would look at the demographics of volunteers and what motivated them to help.

So far it had been established that work commitments and the distance from home were the two biggest barriers for volunteers.

Bay of Plenty Polytechnic research manager Dr Heather Hamerton said being able to help clean-up the oil had helped volunteers to deal with their anger about the spill.

The initial survey saw 164 people take part, while 7950 had registered to volunteer.

Meanwhile Sophie Hazlehurst, Maritime New Zealand spokeswoman, told the Bay of Plenty Times yesterday there had been no change to the condition of the beleaguered ship after the weather bomb blew through.

"Rena survived unscathed," she said.

The barge Go Canopus had remained on site to monitor the Rena.

Svitzer spokesman Matt Watson said the conditions were calm yesterday and the salvage crews would get back on board the Rena once the Smit Borneo was back fully-operational after its weekend maintenance work.

"It's very calm again, the weather conditions are very favourable. We appear to have got through the recent burst of bad weather," he said.

This Sunday volunteers and their families are invited to an event on Main Mount Beach to listen to live bands and be thanked with a sausage sizzle.

MNZ national on scene commander Mick Courtnell said the event was an opportunity to acknowledge the effort from volunteers who played a significant role in cleaning up the beaches.

"The response from the local community was overwhelming. We saw many people come back time and again, despite the fact the work involving painstaking sifting of oily sand on hands and knees, and then returning the next day to do it all again," he said.

The event will run from 4pm until 7pm. Bands playing are Hurricane Tilly, Nine Mile Stone, and the Aaron Saxon band.