12 Oct 2011

Exclusion zone around Rena widened

6:22 pm on 12 October 2011

An exclusion zone around a stricken container ship off Tauranga has been extensively widened to cover about a quarter of the Bay of Plenty coastline.

The zone stretches approximately 45km from Mount Maunganui to Matata, and about 40km out to sea as far as Mayor Island. It had previously included just 2.7km around the Rena.

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The Bay of Plenty Regional Council says the zone has been extended due to navigational hazards such as oil and containers which have fallen off the listing ship.

Maritime New Zealand says none of the containers in the ocean contain hazardous substances and most are thought to be empty as they are floating.

It says the salvors are sending vessels out to try to corral some of the containers and a heavy lift crane is due to arrive on Thursday to recover them.

The exclusion zone is not affecting the entrance to the Port of Tauranga at present. Anyone found breaching the zone could be fined up to $20,000.