In 2018, Dong Won 701 caught fire at Primeport and burned for eight days.
Since then, plans have been under way for the ship to scuttled off the coast of Otago.
Yesterday afternoon, the ship left port, towed by PrimePort’s tug Te Mura .
Late last month, the Environmental Protection Authority certified Dong Won 701 had been cleaned and prepared in accordance with its requirements.
According to the dumping consents, the ship will be scuttled 25 nautical miles (46.3km) southeast of Otago Harbour, at an authorised dump site.
Once the ship has been towed to the site, it will be blown up using explosives placed inside before it left port.
A qualified marine mammal observer aboard the tug will conduct a visual observation of marine mammals for at least two hours after the vessel arrives at the dump site.
The vessel will then be scuttled.
The crew conducting the scuttling have to remain at the site for at least one hour after the vessel is no longer visible on the sea surface, to see if the blast has resulted in any debris.
Any debris must be retrieved and taken onshore.
A notice to mariners was filed by Land Information New Zealand, to let others in the area know of the activity and the temporary exclusion zone.
The exact time the ship will be blown up is unknown.
Primeport has not responded to repeated inquiries about the ship’s departure.
A Transport Accident Investigation Commission report released in late 2019 stated it could not determine the cause of the blaze that damaged Dong Won 701.
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Comments
All that scrap metal going to wast, shame it could not be recycled.
Gee, this would have been a good opportunity for the navy to have some target practise at sea. I mean if the thing was tethered and there was a dead flat sea it would be hard to miss. Surely.
But then I'm not sure a navy boat is allowed to come south this year so the sinking might have to wait a while.