Rena salvage teams have reached a milestone in the recovery of containers with a total of 1001 containers recovered from the wreck.

Environmental specialists Braemar Howells and Unimar report the total of containers hit 1001 on Wednesday.

A total of 1001 containers have been recovered from the Rena. It was carrying 1368 when it hit the reef. Photo: November 2011 - Maritime NZ.

The Rena was carrying 1368 containers when it hit the Astrolabe Reef on October 5, last year.

Braemar also reports a total of 35 tonnes of debris has been collected from the seabed around the Rena wreck in the last week.

Braemar Howells operations manager Mike Richards says further debris was pre-loaded into cages by divers on the seabed, ready to be picked up this week.

Bad weather halted recovery efforts on the wreck at the weekend but clean-up crews stayed on site overnight aboard the 26metre Tasman Challenger barge – to be already on location for an early start the following day.

The Tasman Challenger is a vessel especially equipped for such clean-up operations.

Such endeavours within the two-mile exclusion zone around the Rena were influenced by suitable weather and timed around helicopter operations being carried out by salvors Resolve Salvage and Fire.