Mark Cairns, CEO of Port of Tauranga took the opportunity to comment on my letter but completely chose to miss the points raised and the thrust of my letter.
Effectively what I said was that Port of Tauranga as NZ largest port needed a dedicated barge to take the oil off stricken vessels, it also needed a barge with a crane to unload containers from such vessels and that the Astrolabe Reef needed a beacon.
I made no attempt to address technical issues or the salvage operations as I am not qualified to do so. I did question the delay of a meaningful response for the first 5 days and I was talking about a ship initially in reasonably good shape, which may have been able to assist with oil discharge, not one battered by winds and storms and effectively wrecked.
Mr Cairns went off on his own tangent although it is safe to assume he is dismissive of my observations. Well, next time Mr. Cairns, Tauranga/Mount/Papamoa may not be so lucky. The public can make up its own mind on the pros and cons of what is being said …. 6 weeks to get the bulk of fuel oil off and a year to remove all the containers!! Remember the sooner you start, the sooner you finish the job.
What goes on behind the scenes and the shilly-shallying between Tauranga Port and Bay Regional Council is not the public's problem. Those of us with genuine environmental and conservation concerns will not be interested in the politics or who is holding whose hand if any unnecessary damage occurs to our coastal environment. We need emergency services located at Tauranga Port in place to act at short notice, not unpreparedness.
I am not swayed by the ‘once in 100 years event' claptrap either, we nearly had 2 in a month, MV RENA, MV Schelde Trader (2011) and Hanjin Bombay (2010) plus the Golden Master beached 40 odd years ago.

R Paterson, Matapihi.