UAS footage of RNZN Divers surveying the area around HMNZS Manawanui on the Southern Coast of Upulo as part of Op Resolution. 25 October 2024 Photo: New Zealand Defence Force
The Defence Force says it has finished getting diesel fuel and other pollutants off the sunken ship Manawanui in Samoa.
The survey ship hit a reef last October as a result of the crew's error.
Defence originally said it would take 20 days from mid-December to get the fuel off, estimated then at 1000 tonnes or about a million litres.
Almost three months later, it now said it has got 365,000 litres off, with 284 dives removing it from 55 different tanks.
"Salvors have reached and checked all tanks and in some cases compartments, and other locations that could contain diesel fuel, and oil and other pollutants," said commodore Andrew Brown in a statement on Thursday.
"This was some of the most challenging diving operations - accessing the ship's hardest to reach tanks - those at the very bottom of where Manawanui lays on its side."
They were confident the salvors had been very thorough, he said.
A large amount of what was taken off was reusable diesel, while 45,000 litres of waste oils and diesel fuel/seawater would be sent to New Zealand for disposal.
An independent international assessment found what fuel leaked out dissipated quickly, Brown said.
Regular tests by the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa had found low hydrocarbons, confirming "the seawater and marine life in this area are clear and uncontaminated."
Salvors were now removing equipment, weapons, ammunition and debris from in and around the ship "and then making it secure".
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