Container recovery operations are focused to the northwest of the Rena wreck today while oil clean-up and environment protection efforts are aimed to the southeast.

Maritime New Zealand national on scene commander Alex van Wijngaarden says the amount of oil to spill from the Rena on Tuesday is less than 10 tonnes.


Early clean-up efforts at Waihi Beach. Photo: Debi Bennett.

'We are regularly monitoring the oil on the water with aerial observation flights,” says Alex.

'The most recent one confirmed a stretch of sheen with some dark patches in it spreading about 500m from Rena.

'A lighter sheen, with no dark oil spots, stretches around 10km from the wreck.

'What this means is the amounts that have been released are relatively minimal to date.”

He says this is due to the work of the salvors in the months following the Rena's grounding on the Astrolabe Reef on October 5.

'The salvage teams have done an excellent job of removing the bulk of the oil from the ship,” says Alex.

'There are residual pockets of oil that they were unable to reach due to the extensive damage on the ship, however, we are talking tens of tonnes left onboard – as opposed to the hundreds of tonnes we saw washing ashore in October.”

The oil to spill on Tuesday when the Rena's stern slipped down the reef headed southeast and MNZ trajectory modeling shows it is due to wash ashore at Maketu on Thursday.

In anticipation of this, MNZ is placing booms at Maketu and Little Waihi as a protective measure for wildlife.

In the northwest, container recovery company Braemar Howells has 13 vessels working on two major on-water operations today.

The first operation, assisted by aerial spotters, is targeting debris fields to recover material from the water northwest of Astrolabe Reef and north of Motiti Island.

The second operation is focusing on securing and recovering floating containers and large timber bundles in the Waihi Beach area.

Onshore, about 150 people are working on clean-up operations for Braemar Howells, collecting debris from containers.

A helicopter is patrolling the coast checking for floating containers between Waihi and Matakana this morning.
Five containers and their contents have been removed by road from Waihi Beach and recovery teams are working to remove 10 more.

Plans are underway to remove 11 containers from Matakana Island.

Oiled wildlife remains a concern for the emergency responders, but MNZ reports its night patrols looking for affected birds at Mount Maunganui and Motiti Island found no oiled birds.

More teams are checking beaches today, from the Mount to Pukehina.

The Oiled Wildlife Centre at Te Maunga has been partially reactivated to receive any oiled wildlife.
Volunteers are being provided with protective equipment and trained to take part in beach clean-ups at Waihi Beach this morning.

SunLive reader Debi Bennett took the following photographs at Waihi Beach on Monday. They show the general public's enthusiasm for getting their hands dirty and cleaning up the debris on the beach.

Debris on Monday provided beach goers with makeshift seats.

Nearby residents had earlier stacked bags of milk powder into piles on the beach.

The debris was hazardous in the surf.

A boy looks on as the waves roll a large container.

People stack the milk powder bags at the rear of the beach.