ROUV operation
The AMSA contracted Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle (ROUV) assessment of the containers lost from the YM Efficiency began on 3 December.
So far three targets of interest have been located and imaged.
Target 1
On December 3 the ROUV was deployed close to shore for testing just south of Fingal Bay at the known location of a target identified during the shoreline clean-up operations. The ROUV identified a number of tyres and what could be the remains of a shipping container in about 20-30 metres of water.
Targets 2-3
On Monday 10 December the ROUV proceeded to an area about 32 kilometres east of Redhead, in the vicinity of the location where the containers were lost from the ship.
The ROUV successfully located two containers on the seafloor and was able to image the container numbers. AMSA has confirmed that the containers were part of the YM Efficiency’s manifest. The containers are damaged but appear to be intact and resting in about 120 metres of water.
The ROUV assessments will continue over the coming weeks as weather conditions permit.
Sonar search
The second phase of the surface operations designed to locate the containers on the sea floor have continued over the last month. The second phase of operations contracted by the ships insurance company utilises side scan sonar to attempt to locate the outstanding containers.
Extremely poor weather, with high winds and heavy seas off the NSW coast over the past few weeks has hampered search operations however, to date 254 km2 of sea floor has been scanned and two additional targets have been located since the initial survey in August.
The two new possible containers are plotted on the below map which also shows the area’s searched and the location of the targets imaged by the ROUV. (See high quality hydrographic survey map 11 December 2018 PDF 2.1 MB (PDF 2.1 MB))