Rena Salvage

On 5 October 2011, the Seaworks team was the first on the scene to respond to what would later be labelled New Zealand’s largest and costliest shipwreck and worst maritime environmental disaster: the grounding of the 236-metre-long container ship Rena on Astrolabe Reef, off the Bay of Plenty.

For the next 126 days, our crew (numbering up to 50 at times) would take part in the salvage and clean-up operations at the site. Speed was initially essential, as at the time of the grounding the ship’s load included eight containers of hazardous materials, 1,700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and 200 tonnes of marine diesel – and the vessel was slowly being broken up by large sea swells.

The Seaworks response

Seaworks’ role was to provide support and services to Svitzer, the company assigned to undertake the salvage. With our extensive international experience and specialist equipment, we were the right organisation for the job.

Of course we weren’t the only people offering to help – the area was crowded with smaller-scale salvage businesses from around New Zealand and the world. We supported those we could with local knowledge and ancillary services such as crew transfers, remotely operated vehicle (ROV) inspections, subsea recovery rigging installations and container retrievals.

We also provided four vessels for the oil recovery operations and deployed the Brandywine, a self-propelled barge we owned at the time, to work in tandem with a team of helicopters in retrieving broken containers, timber and other items.

Later we were called on to help with the subsea inspection of the sunken wreck, for which we supplied the 39-metre MV Seasurveyor. This project had three phases:

• Using a towfish we completed a seabed scan and identified the GPS locations of salvageable containers
• Using our Falcon ROV, we undertook visual inspections of the sunken containers’ accessibility
• Using our workclass ROV we installed rigging on the containers in preparation for their salvage

The project was demanding for everyone involved, and every aspect required meticulous attention to detail. Our practical experience, international qualifications (in quality, environmental management systems and occupational health and safety) and status as a proven service provider to the Government, state-owned enterprises and local councils saw us working directly with Maritime New Zealand, and later taking part in the follow-up subsea inspection programme.

Today the Rena is sitting 30 metres below the surface at Astrolabe Reef. It appears that nature has taken control, as the wreck is reported to have been re-colonised by shoals of fish and marine life. While we appreciate the appeal for divers, we hope New Zealand never has to experience an event like this again.

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