PHOTOS: Containers, Milk Powder, Timber Wash Up Waihi Beach After MV Rena Splits

Top News
January 9, 2012

As of 11 AM NZDT today, four containers and a considerable amount of debris from the wreck of the MV Rena have washed up on Waihi Beach, Maritime New Zealand says.

AsianScientist (Jan. 9, 2012) – As of 11 AM NZDT today, four containers and a considerable amount of debris from the wreck of the MV Rena have washed up on Waihi Beach, Maritime New Zealand says.

Another seven containers are known to be within a mile of the shore, and container recovery company Braemar Howells is using tugs to tow them offshore.

A container off Rena washed ashore at Waihi beach (Source: MNZ).

Aerial observation flights suggest that up to 40 containers were in the water, all of them north of the harbour entrance. 21 have been tagged with buoys and they will be corralled and collected as soon as conditions allow.

Teams are already on Waihi Beach to secure and start removing the debris, which includes timber, milk powder, and plastic material.

Bags of milk powder off Rena are left strewn across Waihi beach after washing up today (Source: MNZ).

While no beaches have officially been closed today, National On Scene Commander Alex van Wijngaarden urged people to use common sense and stay out of the water.

“The beaches are open, but there is inevitably going to be a lot of mess and disturbance for the next few days while this is cleaned up and we would like people to use common sense and stay well away from the debris – in some cases this will mean staying out of the water as well as away from material washed up on the beach,” he cautioned.

Trained oil spill response teams are prepared to respond to any reports of fresh oil on the beaches and two vessels are prepared for on-water oil recovery within the harbor if sea conditions allow, Mr Alex van Wijngaarden said. So far there is no indication of a significant release of oil from the Rena, although a sheen of oil is still visible off the vessel.

Meanwhile, wildlife teams brought in six little blue penguins overnight and this morning, but only three have them have proved to be oiled, and are now being rehydrated and rehabilitated, Oiled Wildlife Response Manager Kerri Morgan said.

Morgan added that many penguins that were reported as being oiled were found to be moulting juvenile birds, and were not affected by oil.

Salvors have not yet been able to land on the stern section of the Rena, which showed no change in position on the Astrolabe Reef. The bow section of the vessel is still wedged firmly in its original position, but is suffering internal damage from wave action now that it is fully exposed to the sea, MNZ Salvage Advisor Jon Walker said.