While politicians and iwi are pushing for full removal of the Rena, a Mount Maunganui club is pressing on with supporting its vision of retaining the wreck as a popular dive attraction.

Mount Maunganui Underwater Club vice-president Gail Bingham says since salvage operations began two years ago, the club has been communicating with the ship's owner Daina Shipping on the wreck's attraction as a dive site.

A Mount Maunganui club wants the Rena at Astrolabe Reef as a dive attraction.

'We firmly believe it [leaving the wreck would be best for the Bay of Plenty] for a number of reasons. One, because the time involved in removing the wreck is incredible; and we also believe that leaving the wreck on the reef would turn it into an incredible dive attraction,” says Gail.

The containership Rena struck the Astrolabe Reef, about 25km off the coast of Tauranga, on October 5, 2011. The ship leaked more than 350 tonnes of heavy fuel oil into the environment and broke up, spilling containers and cargo into the ocean, washing up on beaches across the Bay of Plenty.

The owners and insurers are expected to lodge a resource consent application with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council between the end of March and May this year, to leave remains of the ship on the reef.

Motiti Island hapu is continuing to fight to have their claim for full removal resolved this month. Ngai Te Hapu Incorporated Society lodged the Treaty claim under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 last May.

Gail says leaving the wreck has the potential to bring divers to the Bay, while removing the wreck will cause more damage to the Astrolabe Reef and put salvors' lives at risk.

But she feels this view may be currently limited predominately to the dive community, because they the ones to gain the most from the decision.

'The owners need resource consent to leave it and of course they would leave it in a condition that would be safe because they are not just going to walk away; they will leave it in a state where it's a really valuable dive site.

'Once the accommodation block has been removed, no one will even know it's there.”

Recently Labour leader David Cunliffe, NZ First leader Winston Peters, and Ngai Te Hapu representative Buddy Mikaere have all expressed their views on completely removing the wreck on the reef, with David labelling current plans as 'an insult” to the Bay of Plenty community.

Spokesperson for the ship's owners and insurers, Hugo Shanahan, says the club is part of a list of commercial, recreational and environmental groups sharing an interest in the technical work being undertaken on the proposed future for the remains of the wreck.

He says it is important to note the owner's and insurers are not proposing to leave the wreck as a dive site, albeit leaving the wreck in an already popular dive site would attract divers to explore it.

If such a decision was reach in the Environment Court, dive safety would need to be an important consideration, says Hugo.

As part of the ongoing consultation programme, the technical team preparing the consent application has been discussing the findings of draft technical studies with the Mount Maunganui Underwater Club representatives and other interested groups.

Discussions with club representatives have had a particular focus on potential dive hazard mitigation, including practices that would help to educate and inform divers – from a safety management perspective.

A 350 tonne bridge section of the former container ship Rena currently lies on the seafloor near Motiti Island, as salvors attempt to re-rig the crane barge's lifting blocks for another lift.