Maritime NZ personnel are now in Westport to support the work around the grounded barge Manahau at Carters Beach.

The near 100m barge grounded at about midnight Sunday 1 September, at the time it had 11 people on-board. The crew remain on the vessel and are safe. The barge is intact, no items have been lost, and there are no leaks. There was no cargo on-board at the time.

Contractors managed by the operator, will be on site again today, to continue work with the vessel.

The operator is responsible for the development of the plan around the vessel. Maritime NZ is leading the government response collaboratively with the local and regional authorities to ensure any plans are safe.

The safety of people, property and environment is paramount.

Planning is ongoing around bringing a specialist tug vessel down from Taranaki to support a potential re-float later this week.

Maritime NZ wants to reaffirm people need to stay away from the vessel. It is an operational area, and is highly dangerous.

As the matter is under investigation, we are not in a position to talk about the events leading up to the grounding.

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