Salvors Approach the End of Fuel Removal for Lost Survey Ship Manawanui

 

Salvors hired by the New Zealand Defence Force have recovered a substantial share of the fuel aboard the lost survey ship HMNZS Manawanui, which ran aground on a reef and sank off Samoa in October 2024.  

Working from a moored deck barge, the salvage divers pumped off enough diesel and oily water to make two return trips to Apia to offload full tank containers (tanktainers) and return with new empties. 

“The salvors have recovered a significant amount of liquid from tanks on the Manawanui after operating . . . for the past 17 days,” NZDF on-scene representative Commodore Andrew Brown said. "Just over 340,000 liters of liquid has been recovered from Manawanui. Of this we estimate 320,000 liters of diesel fuel mix has been recovered from the ship’s diesel fuel tanks."

The team has pumped out the ship's larger and more accessible tanks, he said, and they are now making progress on the smaller remaining tanks. There are 54 in total that need to be pumped out, including fuel, lube oil and bilge water tanks. 

"The amount of diesel fuel in the liquid recovered won’t be known until the liquid is processed, although the majority of the volume of liquid recovered so far is assessed to be diesel," Commodore Brown said. “In addition to the liquids from the diesel fuel tanks, the salvors have recovered around 18,000 liters of lubricating oil."

The end of the pollution-abatement process is approaching, and the governments of Samoa and New Zealand are in talks about next steps, which might include wreck removal or possible compensation for local fishermen. The residents of nearby villages were banned from fishing near the wreck site for weeks due to the risk of fuel contamination. 

Those villagers are making moves of their own. After calling for financial compensation from their government and from New Zealand, they reached out to the Chinese embassy in Apia for foreign aid assistance. "We met with the Chinese ambassador to discuss our needs, and they are willing to assist us immediately due to the sinking of the boat in our district," a spokesperson told Radio New Zealand. "We talked about the individual and family needs for daily living, including monetary assistance to help with their losses."