Sunday, 20 October 2024, 5:46 pm Press Release: New Zealand Defence Force
New Zealand and Samoan teams worked from early
Saturday late into the night to remove an empty shipping
container from the reef, after it and two others came off
the sunken Royal New Zealand Navy ship HMNZS Manawanui two
weeks ago.
Of the three shipping containers, two are
empty and one is carrying 3000kg of food. The New Zealand
Defence Force (NZDF) is working with a local contractor, ARK
Marine, to remove these containers from the reef off the
south-west coast of Upolu.
“This is challenging
work, and yesterday the teams did a great job,” NZDF
Senior National Representative Commodore Andrew Brown
says.
“We are continuing with the container
removal over the next few days, making sure that we are
keeping people safe and with the protection of the
environment in mind.”
The three 10ft containers
are being floated and then towed to shore.
Commodore
Brown says the work is being carried out under the direct
supervision of the Samoan authorities.
This week,
activity will be scaled down to avoid disrupting CHOGM, but
both the removal of the containers and monitoring of the
vessel and shoreline will continue, he
says.