A maritime legal expert is casting doubt on whether the owner of the stricken Rena is obliged by law to remove the wreckage from the reef.
The container ship has been grounded on Astrolabe Reef off the Tauranga coast since 5 October last year. It finally broke in two after severe weather at the weekend and on Tuesday about three-quarters of the 150-metre stern slipped below water.
[image:4311:full]Environment Minister Nick Smith says the wreck and all spilled containers will eventually have to be removed from Astrolabe Reef under international maritime law.
However, maritime lawyer Peter Dawson says the shipping company is only required to remove all the wreckage if it poses a hazard to navigation.
He says that if part of the vessel has sunk to a point where it is not a hazard, it may not have to be removed.
Mr Dawson says environmental factors may also come into play under the Resource Management Act if the wreckage is hazardous or toxic.
Greek shipping company Costamare, which owns the Rena, says it is formulating plans for dealing with the wreck, but is not confirming whether that means both parts would be removed.
A company spokesperson, Pat Adamson, says Costamare and its insurers are continuing to fund the salvage operation and are committed to continue doing so.
Difficult operation
Nick Smith told Radio New Zealand's Summer Report programme on Tuesday that about 700 containers remain on the ship - many of which are on the submerged section.
"The deeper that it goes, the more difficult it is to recover those containers from that vessel, and clearly from an environmental perspective we want as much recovered as possible.
"The scenario we do not want is debris being released from that vessel on an ongoing basis over the next year or two."
Dr Smith said 27 containers carrying with dangerous goods are likely to sink and will have to be removed. The advice has been that the chemicals will be diluted by water.
The bow section is more vulnerable since the ship broke up, as it is fully exposed to the seas and will break up in time, so the priority is to get containers off that part of the boat as quickly as possible.
