Container removal operations on board the Rena remain on hold as severe winds continue to batter the ship, stranded on Astrolabe Reef.

Maritime New Zealand says the ship is still intact but they are unable to resume removal of containers due to strong wind and rough seas.

The cargo ship Rena, grounded on Astrolabe Reef is still intact, but remains in a fragile condition.

The vessel Go Canopus is still connected to the Rena, monitoring its condition which is described as 'fragile”.

Ninety containers have been lifted from the Rena, since the ship ran aground on the reef on October 5. There are still 1185 containers on board, including 31 containers of dangerous goods.

The dangerous goods containers include 21 containers of Cryolite, which were not declared to MNZ on the ship's original manifest.

Investigations by Maritime NZ are underway as to why this occurred. MNZ says these containers are considered 'low risk in their current state.”

Meanwhile strong winds have exposed tar balls and patches of solid oil along the high tide mark on beaches east of Papamoa.

MNZ Planning Manager for the Rena response Dayne Maxwell says beach operations team are now moving towards Papamoa east and are picking up a large proportion of the remaining oil.

'Recent strong winds have exposed tar balls and patches of old oil from earlier swells above the high tide mark.

'The oil we're currently finding is between the sand dunes and the high tide mark and we're working systematically to remove it.”

Mechanical beach grooming using two vehicles is being carried out along the coastline from Leisure Island to Omanu Surf Club, a distance of more than four kilometres.

The total 953 tonnes of solid waste has been removed from the coastline and is being processed at a specially prepared site at Hampton Downs in the Waikato.

Seventeen of the 60 rare New Zealand dotterels kept at the Wildlife Response Centre in Te Maunga were released back into their natural habitat on Thursday, November 24 after being pre-emptively caught following the Rena grounding.

Wildlife experts released the birds at three sites along Maramarua beach east of Pukehina as part of a staged wildlife release programme that will be rolled out over the coming weeks.