Crew visible on the stranded barge Manahau. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee

Maritime NZ staff and Westland Mineral Sands are working on a plan to refloat the stranded barge Manahau at Carters Beach, near Westport.

The barge, which is owned by Westland Mineral Sands, ran aground at Carters Beach about midnight Saturday during a storm. It had 11 people on board. No one was injured, the boat was not damaged and there was no cargo on board at the time.

Maritime NZ said it was leading the government response with local and regional authorities. The operator, Westland Mineral Sands, was responsible for developing a plan around the vessel.

On Monday, contractors managed by the operator were working to keep the barge stable. A digger had been used to bury anchors on the beach to help stabilise the vessel and a helicopter made several trips to drop supplies onto the boat.

The barge Manahau stranded on Carters Beach on Monday morning. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee

Maritime NZ said planning was underway to bring a specialist tug vessel down from Taranaki to support a potential re-float later this week. As the matter was under investigation, Maritime NZ said it could not talk about the events leading up to the grounding.

Carters Beach Top 10 Holiday Park owner Christina Alfeld said the barge had been anchored out off the beach for about five days and she saw it come ashore during stormy, wild weather, late on Saturday night. "My husband was down the road at a fundraiser and he noticed the lights on the beach and he was concerned the barge had let go so he rung me up and asked for the emergency walkie, so I took that down and he was trying to communicate with the boat. "It was stormy, you can see why it blew in, they were anchored offshore but obviously they lost their anchor and came in and ran along the beach." "It was stormy, you can see why it blew in, they were anchored offshore but obviously they lost their anchor and came in and ran along the beach."
Alfeld said the lights on the ship were so bright, she could see them moving down the beach and they almost blinded her while she was driving.
"We shone our lights on the shore to give them an idea of how close they were but then we realised there was no helping it, they were stuck."
She said a Westland Mineral Sands staff member was there and police arrived shortly after.
Alfeld said it all happened very quickly, with the lights from the barge visible outside the camp, then down the other end of the ship within seven minutes.

The Manahau arrived on the West Coast in mid-August to begin shipping mineral sands mined at Cape Foulwind from Westport to Nelson.
"They had just come back ... they were just doing their second load, it was that new." Alfeld said there had been a lot of talk in the community about how and why the barge had come ashore and whether it should have been anchored out there. Alfeld said there had been a lot of talk in the community about how and why the barge had come ashore and whether it should have been anchored out there."But it is what it is and we've just got to sort it out now as a town."

A Westland Mineral Sands spokesperson said it had engaged a specialist recovery team to assist with the recovery of the barge. All 11 crew remained safely on board and additional food supplies would be delivered to them later on Monday. There were no environmental concerns.

Westland Mineral Sands said it continued to work closely with local councils and Maritime NZ. It had also engaged an independent expert to conduct a thorough investigation to determine how the incident occurred.

Source: rnz.co.nz