Hopes that Bay of Plenty beaches would reopen this weekend have been dashed after tides and weather revealed more oil from grounded vessel Rena on the cleaned areas.
Beaches between Papamoa and Maketu Spit will remain closed as clean-up crews head out this morning to begin clearing further oil exposed following high tide yesterday.
This includes oil buried under the sand during the rough weather two weeks ago, said National On Scene Commander Nick Quinn.
More than 840 tonnes of waste has been removed from beaches since the ship hit Astrolabe Reef, Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) confirmed.
Clean-up machinery will be used with physical labour from volunteers and New Zealand Defence Force operations to clean up beaches in the region.
Prime Minister John Key is this morning due to meet salvors who are removing oil from the stricken ship.
The salvage team continued pumping oil from the ship overnight after transfer from the port number 5 tank stopped for a few hours yesterday afternoon while the pump was moved deeper into the tank, , said MNZ Salvage Unit Manager Bruce Anderson.
Work is continuing to establish a fuel transfer system from the engine room tanks into the tug Go Canopus.
"Most of the oil has been removed from that tank, so the fuel transfer rate out of there is slowing down,'' Mr Anderson said.
The salvage team begun pumping fuel from the engine room tanks into the port number 5 tank on Tuesday but this had proved ineffective, Mr Anderson said.
Salvors were now working on a pumping system to take the fuel through a 10 centimetre hose and directly into the anchor-handling tug Go Canopus.
The tug was alongside Rena and work was underway to connect the pumping system.
A dive team was continuing to try to establish a fuel transfer system for the number 5 starboard tank.
"This is really challenging as the tank is underwater and the team needs to create a water-tight space to work from,'' Mr Anderson said.
It was too early to put a timeframe on when the salvors would be able to start removing fuel from that tank.
National On Scene Commander Nick Quinn said in the three weeks since Rena grounded there had been a huge amount of work completed by members of the oil spill response team and the more than 6700 volunteers who had put their hands up to help.
"We do have to keep cleaning and re-cleaning until we get as much oil out of the environment as possible,'' Mr Quinn said.
Mr Quinn said about 120 Telecom workers joined the clean-up operation today and had done a great job.
"The feedback I'm getting from the team leaders who led these Telecom crews was that they did a fantastic job. It's hugely appreciated to see the business community getting behind the response.''
"We understand people want the beaches open, but we must make sure they are cleaned to an acceptable level. We also need to get agreement from public health before we re-open these beaches.''
