Salvage work onboard the Rena wreck is proving a putrid task for Svitzer salvors as broken refrigerated containers holding food stuffs are opened and processed.

To assist in the removal of the containers, their cargo needs to be emptied at times, and over the last three days, spoiled cargo handled has included lamb and mussels.

Svitzer salvors have to wear protective clothing when handling the rotting cargo of broken refrigerated containers. Photo: Svitzer.

On Friday, 50 big bags of lamb were removed from the bow section of the wreck at Astrolabe Reef; and on Saturday, 76 big bags of mussels were removed.

These were shifted to a barge alongside to be brought ashore for processing by Braemar Howells.

Also placed on the barge were general pieces of scrap and a broken refrigerated container called a ‘reefer' by salvors.

Helicopters are being used to remove the scrap, broken reefers, containers and cargo from the wreck.

The total number of containers removed from the wreck is now 561, with another 71 recovered from the sea or washed up along a beach.

There were 1368 containers onboard the Rena when it ran aground on October 5.

Aerial surveys of sea and shore in the Bay of Plenty are not locating any new major wreckage.