The Manawanui left Whangarei’s Marsden Pt wharf about 9.30am today to ferry a five-strong team, including two Tauranga-based chemical experts, to an area about six miles north-east of the Poor Knights Islands.
The group aboard the Manawanui is part of a multi-agency response team based in Whangarei that is working to recover drifting packages of magnesium phosphide, a potentially hazardous chemical used to fumigate ships.
Response team Incident Controller Ian Niblock says the chemical produces a poisonous gas on contact with moisture and in cases of serious exposure can lead to increasing chest tightness, breathlessness and collapse.
Mr Niblock says the chemical experts – aided by Fire Service staff - will confirm the safest way to recover and dispose of the packages once the Manawanui arrives at the scene, at this stage estimated to be about 1.30pm today.
“The most likely scenario is that the packages will lifted on to the Manawanui in a controlled manner and placed in a designated, safe area aboard to allow any gas to vent safely to air.”
Initial estimates are that it could take until late tomorrow (Tuesday) to recover the packages.
“It’s intended that the recovered packages will then be taken from the Manawanui to a secure land-based hazardous chemical storage area at Marsden Pt to allow the venting process to continue safely.”
That process could take several days, with options for final disposal including burial of the remaining inert matter at a suitable location.
Mr Niblock says to his knowledge there have been no reports of any packages coming ashore today.
However, he says on no account should the packages be approached or handled and anyone encountering one of the packages on land should dial 111 immediately.
Similarly, boaties encountering packages should not approach them but contact Maritime Radio on Channel 16 to report their position.
The packages are orange flat cardboard tubes, approximately two-metres long, 150mm wide and 25mm thick.
Mr Niblock says at this stage the packages are thought to be spread over an approximately 400 square km. The weather in the area is currently fine and the forecast for the next couple of days is favourable.
Meanwhile, Mr Niblock says the Maritime Safety Authority is continuing its investigations into how the packages found their way into the sea, where they were discovered by boaties at the weekend.