Stern of broken Rena close to sinking

The stranded containership Rena broke in two on the Astrolabe Reef off New Zealand at the weekend, more than three months after running aground in calm conditions on 5 October.

Up to 300 containers fell into the sea. Most of these sank but a number of containers have washed ashore and cargo including timber and bags of powdered milk has been found on beaches up to 60 km from the ship. Maritime New Zealand, which is monitoring the wreck, said no further significant oil leakage accompanied the breaking up. Up to 300 tons of oil was spilled when the vessel first grounded, causing New Zealand's worst ever environmental disaster.

Heavy seas and 20' waves continued to take their toll and by Tuesday the stern of the ship had almost disappeared from view as it slipped slowly off the reef into deeper waters. A tug has a line attached to prevent Rena from drifting into shipping lanes, as the site is only 22 km from the country's major export port of Tauranga. The possibility of containers floating into nearby shipping lanes is also a cause for concern. Container recovery operator Braemar Howells said airborne observers had found up to 40 boxes north of the harbour entrance, 21 of which had been connected to buoys.

Maritime New Zealand has been working with salvage firm Svitzer since the grounding, removing 389 containers and pumping over 1,000 tons of oil from the vessel as of 6 January. Swells of up to 4m continue to work the stern section of the Rena and Maritime New Zealand officials expect the most likely outcome is that it will sink in up to 30m of water, which will make continuing salvage operations more difficult. Conditions at the site have been too dangerous for salvors to board either section of the ship since it broke in two.

The captain of the 775' long, 3,032 TEU vessel and its navigation officer have both been charged with operating the vessel in a dangerous way and releasing toxic substances, for which they could face up to two years in prison.