The Government today announced it will allocate an additional $542,000 towards the Rena environmental recovery programme.

Environment Minister Amy Adams says the extra funding will bring the total Government funding programme established in the wake of the Rena grounding to $2.42million.

The Rena stuck fast on Astrolabe Reef in November 2011.

The 236metre long ship struck the Astrolabe Reef about 25km off the coast of Tauranga travelling at 17knots on October 5, 2011 subsequently spilling tonnes of heavy fuel oil into the ocean.

The Rena programme identifies the environmental issues for the beaches, seabed, water fisheries, wildlife and management of waste, and sets out the responsibility for the recovery and monitoring of each aspect.

'The extra funding will be used to continue the monitoring of water quality and kaimoana, restore shorelines, protect wildlife and assess the mauri of the Bay of Plenty area,” says the minister.

'It has been almost two years since the Rena was first grounded on the Astrolabe Reef and we have come a long way in the environmental recovery.

'While good progress has already been made to date, it is important that we continue to monitor the Bay of Plenty environment to give us a better understanding of what still needs to be done.”

Amy says the collaboration between the community, iwi, businesses, central and local government has been a key success of the project.

'I would like to thank all those involved for their hard work and commitment to the continued environmental recovery of the Bay of Plenty environment.

'With their help, we will continue to work to restore the Bay of Plenty environment back to its pre-Rena state.”