JULY 2013
INTERNATIONAL SALVAGE UNION
Rena accommodation block to be removed The accommodation block of the wrecked container ship RENA is to be removed – in what New Zealand media reported to be a decision made ahead of any move to apply for consent to leave part of the wreck on the seabed. There have been local concerns about the possibility the accommodation block would degrade or collapse in the future and release debris that could harm the shoreline. The operation, planned to start in August or September, would form another major step in a salvage operation that began when the ship grounded on Astrolabe Reef off the Tauranga coast in October 2011. The P&I insurers, the Swedish Club, said that no environmentally harmful material had been identified in the accommodation block and that any debris that might be released and eventually wash ashore would be picked up by the shoreline monitoring and cleanup process that had been put in place. However the Club said it understood that the community does not want the uncertainty of not knowing what might happen to the block over time and that while removing the accommodation block would be expensive it recognised the importance of minimising the effects on the community of the Rena’s grounding as much as possible. Resolve Marine, which has been working on the ship's bow section, will remove
Editor’s comment This edition of Salvage World reports on several substantial and complicated wreck removal operations. Members of the International salvage Union are well placed to undertake such work with their skill, experience and access to the required equipment – often specially fabricated for the job in hand. In the face of the decline of traditional salvage, evidenced by the falling numbers of Lloyd’s Open Forms, wreck
Helicopter operations to remove sections of the bow of the RENA (left). Computer model of the attitude of the wreck (above).
the accommodation block in two sections using oblique chain cutting parallel to the main deck. Preparations for removing the accommodation block will start in August/ September and the operation is expected to take up to 80 days, including 40 days allowance for poor weather and sea conditions. Cutting is expected to begin in October following the arrival of an additional crane barge from Singapore. Once each section is cut away, it will be lifted onto a third barge for transport to the Port of Tauranga for recycling. In the meantime, Resolve will continue with its work to reduce the bow section using helicopters to take away cut sections to a barge stationed nearby. All
removal is undoubtedly a good source of income for contractors. All parties have noted the rising cost of wreck removal operations. But it is a small number of particularly expensive cases that have caught the public eye. Recent research by the International Group of P&I Clubs and Lloyd's has suggested that the chief driver of the rising cost of wreck removals are the increasingly burdensome requirements of the relevant coastal authorities. ISU members acting as wreck removal 1
of the bow section that was above the water line has now been removed and the aim is to reduce it down to at least one metre below the lowest tide mark. As the bow reduction nears completion, Resolve has begun cleaning up the debris field of container wreckage and other cargo that lies around the wreck. Throughout the job so far, the team’s greatest challenge has been the weather. The wreck site is subjected to open-sea conditions with swells of up to 8 metres. The reef rises steeply from the sea floor, which amplifies swell and wave energy at the surface. Under these conditions, work on the wreck has frequently been interrupted or suspended for safety reasons.
contractors are only one part of the large teams required by the authorities. Beach clean-up contractors; independent marine and offshore consultants; environmental monitoring firms and lawyers, for example, all receive substantial income from their involvement in a wreck removal. As the issue continues, rightly, to generate interest, a proper understanding of the breakdown of the cost of wreck removals is required by the shipping industry.