Private, invitation-only meetings are being held between Maritime New Zealand and Tauranga commercial marine operators.

Media weren't invited to a meeting held last week and attendees were told they could not talk about what was discussed there.

The Rena wreck site at the Astrolabe Reef last week.

Russ Hawkins from Fat Boy Charters attended the meeting between MNZ and other Tauranga tourism operators.

'They asked would we not talk to the press,” says Russ, who had to leave early.

'Not that I think there was anything exciting said anyway.”

Media were asked to leave a similar meeting on January 11 by Bay Of Plenty Regional Council communications manager Bronwyn Campbell and MNZ media person Sian Routledge.

At that meeting, the operators voted for the reporters and photographers to stay – and they did.

When Sian was asked why the media were barred, she said the meeting was not secret.

She refused to talk about it at a press conference and assigned Maritime New Zealand salvage unit manager Kenny Crawford to answer the questions.

'I didn't know there was any secrecy,” says Kenny.

'We were just asked to update them on what is happening with the Rena – I'm not aware of any issues at all.”

The meeting with commercial operators was hosted by the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce and was chaired by Derek Roser.

'It was a meeting just to share some information pertinent to the operators really, it was media exclusive,” says Derek.

'There was really just a fill up for information that we had been seeking before.

'It was just an opportunity we felt to have the meeting so there was really nothing that needs reporting in the media at all.”

At the meeting on January 11, operators were critical of MNZ's avenues of communication with the commercial operators and raised issues about debris field information, the exclusion zone and sunken container locations.

They also said the same issues had been raised with MNZ three months ago, without result.

Chamber chief executive officer Max Mason says he didn't make the decision to keep last week's meeting with operators media free.

'We have had a few of these meetings – basically it's a business meeting,” says Max.

'Braemar Howells, Maritime New Zealand and some representatives from the industry just wanted to talk about some things that were going on.

'This wasn't a briefing, it was a discussion like a business meeting; it wasn't about MNZ calling a meeting, it was a back and forth.”

One charter operator, who wasn't invited to the Wednesday meeting, but who was invited to the January 11 meeting, is Mike O'Neill from Sunfish Charters.

'Maybe I asked too many difficult questions,” says Mike.

'We pay fees directly to MNZ and they are supposed to be providing a service for that money and for them to keep information from us is really bad.

'The first meeting when the Rena ran aground we fielded a lot of questions coordinated by the Chamber of Commerce and put to MNZ.

'They never bothered to answer any of them.

'Then they spent a whole lot of taxpayers' money sonar scanning the exclusion zone and came to the conclusion that there are no containers in the exclusion zone, but nevertheless we were forced to stay out of it.

'The exclusion zone, which was scanned, was the only safe piece of water out there for a while and we were told to stay out of it – to go and risk our lives somewhere else.

'These people are ridiculous.”