UPDATED: Read the latest about the ship's lodgement on the reef here.
The container ship Rena is caught on the Astrolabe Reef and remains stuck fast.
The container ship was heading to the Port of Tauranga from Napier and is believed to have struck the reef at about 3am.
Rena is on a 12 degree list.
The Astrolabe Reef lies about four nautical miles north of Motiti Island and is well outside the Port of Tauranga pilotage area.
Port of Tauranga chief executive Mark Cairns says the ship is holed, but is not believed to be leaking fuel.
The harbourmaster and Maritime Safety are investigating.
Maritime New Zealand says the ship 236m long container ship with 25 people on board struck the Astrolabe Reef around 2.20am. There are no reported injuries.
Rena, caught on the Astrolabe Reef.
MNZ's Marine Pollution Response Service is mobilising its team of trained spill responders, as well as specialist equipment to the site.
MNZ has also activated its Maritime Incident Response Team, comprising technical maritime experts.
The team is monitoring the situation closely from Wellington and has a Maritime Safety Inspector on board the vessel assessing the damage.
Members of the National Oiled Wildlife Response Team are also on their way to Tauranga.
The ship is reported to have a list of 12 degrees with two of its cargo holds flooded. It is reported that tanks containing the ship's heavy fuel oil are undamaged.
MPRS, in conjunction with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, is coordinating a flight over the area scheduled for around 8am today to further assess whether there is anything leaking from the vessel.
The cargo ship is fully laden.
Image: Land Information NZ.
Keep checking SunLive for more information on this incident.
6 comments
How?
Posted on 05-10-2011 09:27 | By Justintime
Modern ship, well charted rock, heads to roll here but first we can only hope no major damage is done to one of the prime sealife and fishing areas in BOP.
zara
Posted on 05-10-2011 10:55 | By Zara
Poor old Rena has got a bit of a leana. Its good to see the bridge was manned and all warning systems activated,[such as gps etc]. Hope the seals were more awake than the crew. Been there many times and managed to miss it every time, but of course i had my eyes open..............
THE GOOD SHIP
Posted on 05-10-2011 10:57 | By YOGI
Aground, floundering and more, the obvious well mapped and known location of impending disasters appearing on the horizon years before does not matter. inexerable a bee line is made to the nearest small rock outcrops for any reason.
Not Good
Posted on 05-10-2011 11:08 | By Brian61
The photos here show it all with this container and it is not in a good position at all. Lets hope they can get the cargo off safely and no damage to marine as well.
Very sad
Posted on 05-10-2011 11:13 | By Gee Really
That a vessel with navigational equipment etc can somehow hit that reef. Let's hope none of that oil spills into our sea.
Ship caught on reef near Tauranga
Posted on 05-10-2011 11:51 | By charob
Lets hope it was mechanical error and NOT human. With all the mechanical navigation equipment on board. Just goes to show the good old manual navigation is best. Hope they get her off quick but not looking good at this stage..................
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