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The desolate remains of the MV Rena, which ran aground on the Astrolabe reef in October 2011, have been reclaimed by nature and turned into a thriving kelp forest.
Tauranga diver and ecologist Phil Ross has been monitoring the remains of the Rena since 2012 and says the wildlife recovery is a compliment to the savior’s good work.
His last dive in December 2020 shows stark contrast to his first dive in 2012, where the reef looked like a “junk” filled with tires, broken containers, and twisted steel.
“It looked like someone took a boat, flipped it upside down, shook everything and then jumped on it,” Ross said.
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“Looking at it then, I couldn’t imagine how it would recover, but through the recovery process, that field of debris was removed and allowed the reef to recover.”
Phil Ross / Supplied
Phil Ross dives into the remains of the Rena that has been reclaimed by nature.
When the Rena collided with Astrolabe Reef, it spilled oil, along with containers, into the sea. It is ranked as New Zealand’s worst marine ecological disaster.
Hit by the tides, the affected ship eventually split in half and began to sink below the surface.
The second most expensive salvage operation in the world, $ 700 million, was launched to remove the wreckage, along with the debris scattered near the reef.
In his recent video, Ross gets up close to the fish species that live around and within the wreckage along with anemones, algae and algae that cover the surfaces of the old ship.
Ross says that if you didn’t know the algae was on steel, you could almost mistake it for any other reef.
“Nature has really taken control of the wreck,” he said.
“Almost the entire surface is covered by different types of algae.”
Supplied / Supplied
Salvage operators have been praised by ecologist Phil Ross for cleaning up Rena’s wreck as well as they did.
Ross is part of a team that is monitoring the Rena for the next 20 years to verify that it does not cause further damage to the reef and that any problems are identified early.
They are monitoring any pieces of steel that may break off and float in the tide to damage the reef, as well as the condition of 5 to 10 tons of granulated copper trapped under the hull of the wreck.
Phil Ross / Supplied
Previous dives showed that the reef was more like a garbage dump.
“Copper is pretty disastrous in a marine environment,” Ross said.
“At the moment it’s all in a pile and trapped under the ship, where it is expected to stay. We monitor it to make sure we identify any issues. ”
Ross said the fact that Rena is doing well is good news for the Bay of Plenty.
“The Rena was a very emotional issue for the Bay of Plenty,” he said.
“People went to the beach and demanded to be part of the cleanup effort. Good to see no more plastic beads come out. Their [the Rena] is in very good shape.
“It was New Zealand’s worst ecological disaster, and we haven’t fared so badly considering.”
