Two teams of experts will be battling dangerous conditions and a four metre swell when they board the stricken NZ ship Rena this morning, hoping to cut a hole in the hull to transfer oil from the vessel to a barge.
The salvage team spent about five hours on Thursday on the ship which is listing 20 degrees, assessing damage and working out how best to remove some of the 1300 tonnes of heavy fuel oil still on board.
Maritime New Zealand's salvage manager Bruce Anderson says salvors feel working on the ship is too dangerous and they plan to fix a platform to the side of the Rena and then cut their way through the hull to allow access to the fuel tanks.
"They've still got lots of problems, it's not a quick and easy operation ... you're dangling over the ocean, it's tough, it's going to be really tough," he said.
Cracks in the side of the hull had not appeared to have got worse overnight, and Mr Anderson said despite a four metre swell, it had not appeared to have moved much on the reef and may have settled.
He said divers would survey the ship to determine what part of the reef the 236m-long vessel was on.
The ship grounded on the Astrolabe reef nine days ago and has been spilling fuel oil and containers into the sea.
MetService forecasts the weather around the wreck will improve with a westerly wind and swells of between 1m and 2m from the northeast.
More than 300 tonnes of heavy fuel oil is estimated to have leaked from the 47,000 tonne ship and is washing up on 60km of beaches between Mount Maunganui in the north and the Maketu estuary in the south.
Shipping containers have also washed ashore, spilling their contents onto already oil-splattered beaches.
The leaked oil has killed hundreds of birds and there are up to 70 birds and four seals being treated for oiling at the Wildlife Response Centre in Tauranga.
Beach clean-up teams are being trained, with more than 1000 people registered as volunteers.
The Rena was carrying 1368 containers, and 88 are believed to have fallen off the ship. Twenty have come ashore while 14 have been recovered.
The Port of Tauranga suspended operations overnight because of debris in the shipping lanes but otherwise operations have not been affected.
