UPDATED 1.40pm: Maritime NZ have given Rena salvors Resolve Salvage and Fire permission to ‘pause' the salvage of the wreck once it reaches the level of clean-up set out in the owner's and insurers' resource consent application.

SunLive understands Resolve Salvage and Fire has two-to-three weeks' worth of work left, depending on the weather.

Rena debris recovery is about to paused. Photo: Supplied.

Resolve Salvage & Fire was appointed in 2012 to cut down and clear wreckage and debris from within the debris field at the wreck site.

Resolve has spent the last seven months using specialist salvage equipment and divers to clear cargo and other debris from the Reef. This operation has reached the stage where the scale and type of operation is no longer an efficient or practicable way of recovering debris, says spokesman for the owners and insurers Hugo Shanahan.

"A transition of operations from Resolve to a local firm is underway to engage a New Zealand based operator to complete a final stage, mainly using commercial divers to remove debris by hand," says Hugo.

"This work will bring the wreck site to its proposed consented state, which will be assessed as part of the resource consent application process later this year."

The appointment of a local firm is expected by the end of February, at which time Resolve will provide a handover briefing before departing from Tauranga.

Both during these operations and afterwards the Rena's owner and insurer will have monitoring of the wreck site and the reef environment in place according to a protocol agreed with the Regional Council and other agencies, and will continue the shoreline debris monitoring that has been in place since the grounding, says Hugo.

There will be measures in place to respond to any release of flotsam or other material from the wreck site. This will continue throughout the period required to finally determine the owner's resource consent application and if it is granted, this monitoring would continue for a further ten years.

The Bay of Plenty Regional council has not yet responded to the question of whether the salvors' departure will see the 3km exclusion zone removed from around the reef and the popular recreational fishing spot reopen.

The containership Rena struck Astrolabe (Otaiti) reef on October 5, 2011 before breaking up and sinking. The larger aft section of the ship subsequently slipped down the reef into waters about 50m deep, making complete removal difficult, expensive and dangerous.

The Rena owners lodged a resource consent application under the Resource Management Act to leave sections of the wreck and associated debris in place on the reef and provide for any future discharges of contaminants that may arise from leaving the wreck in situ.

The owners' application states that the wreck will be left in an 'as benign as practicable state”. The application is here.

The application was on track for an Environment Court hearing, until BOP Regional Council filed its statement for the court, which was similar to the owner's in broad brush terms; clean up the wreckage to the recreational dive limit of about 30 metres, clean up the cargo that might pollute and leave the remainder of the frame on the reef.

The resource consent application is expected to be heard later this year by commissioners appointed by BOP Regional Council.

In allowing a temporary pause, two notices imposed by the Director of Maritime NZ will remain in place declaring the wreck a 'hazardous ship” (under section 47 of the Maritime Transport Act) and a 'hazard to navigation” (under section 100A of the MTA).

The notices – which have recently been updated to reflect the current state of the salvage operation – require debris removal and removal of all known copper cargo, to be completed to a depth of 30m, and any release of hazardous substances to be monitored.

Maritime NZ Director Keith Manch says the owners are also required to continue to ensure any flotsam or debris escaping from the wreck will continue to be handled appropriately.

Keith says: 'This will be a temporary measure to allow the owners to go through the resource consent application process.

'Maritime NZ accepts that it is not reasonable to require further salvage work to be carried out, beyond what is required to reach the wreck state set out in the application, until resolution of that process.”