Recovery crews work to remove containers from the broken cargo ship Rena off New Zealand's coast.
Many containers proved extremely difficult to remove from the vessel - and workers have resorted to pushing them into the ocean where they'll be easier to retrieve.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) KENNY CRAWFORD, MARITIME NEW ZEALAND, SAYING:
"Two empty containers have been released and what they've done is let them go and basically they've gone into the sea and it was a controlled release and then they picked them up from there and put them on to one of their barges."
Recovery crews had removed almost half of the ship's cargo before it broke in two on January 8 -- but only 10 containers have been removed since.
More than 500 containers are still unaccounted for.
Authorities are considering bringing in remote controlled submarines to search for containers, and see if they are still on Rena's sunken hull.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) KENNY CRAWFORD, MARITIME NEW ZEALAND, SAYING:
The reason being that for the containers that have landed on 50 metre lines and above then that's okay. Anything underneath that the divers can't get to. So what they are looking at is bringing in these remote operated vehicles."
Despite months of recovery work, fuel and cargo have continued to leak in rough seas, causing New Zealand's worst environmental disaster in decades.
Travis Brecher, Reuters
Many containers proved extremely difficult to remove from the vessel - and workers have resorted to pushing them into the ocean where they'll be easier to retrieve.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) KENNY CRAWFORD, MARITIME NEW ZEALAND, SAYING:
"Two empty containers have been released and what they've done is let them go and basically they've gone into the sea and it was a controlled release and then they picked them up from there and put them on to one of their barges."
Recovery crews had removed almost half of the ship's cargo before it broke in two on January 8 -- but only 10 containers have been removed since.
More than 500 containers are still unaccounted for.
Authorities are considering bringing in remote controlled submarines to search for containers, and see if they are still on Rena's sunken hull.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) KENNY CRAWFORD, MARITIME NEW ZEALAND, SAYING:
The reason being that for the containers that have landed on 50 metre lines and above then that's okay. Anything underneath that the divers can't get to. So what they are looking at is bringing in these remote operated vehicles."
Despite months of recovery work, fuel and cargo have continued to leak in rough seas, causing New Zealand's worst environmental disaster in decades.
Travis Brecher, Reuters
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