Port of Tauranga

The Port of Tauranga is Open

Posted on 7th October 2011

The Port of Tauranga is open and undertaking all normal shipping and cargo operations.

The unfortunate grounding of the Rena occurred at sea, some 22 kilometres from the Mount Entrance.

By law, Maritime New Zealand is required to take control of the maritime accident and they did so immediately on notification of the grounding.

Maritime New Zealand is bringing in resources and experts from around New Zealand and Australia. They are gearing up in case any oil reaches land and they have accessed all available booms and absorbent to contain and soak up any leaked oil. They have on-sea removal systems in place which commenced yesterday. Shore line patrols also started yesterday.

The ship's owner appointed a salvage company, Svitzer, which is one of the most experienced salvage companies in the world and we understand the highest priority is being placed on getting the fuel oil pumped off the ship.

The Port is making all resources that we have available to assist in the response including; staff, work boats, tugs (if necessary), office space, shed space to store the oil response materials, and wharf berths to load the materials.