The Australian Maritime Safety Authority is set to review tenders put forward to remove sunken shipping containers off the Hunter coast and hopes to determine a timeline for their removal by January.
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The federal agency's general manager response, Mark Morrow, said the tender process had closed Monday with "four or five" in the mix to secure a contract for the recovery of containers that fell overboard from the cargo ship YM Efficiency last June.
"We got a reasonable response back from industry. It is a complex operation, most of the equipment that needs to be used is not readily available in Australia," he said.
The agency will review the tenders over coming months and make a decision early next year.
"It is a fairly lengthy assessment process of the tenders that will take us through to January, 2020," Mr Morrow said.
"In that period, we also need to consult, of course, with industry and other stakeholders to make sure that, of the approaches that have come back to us in those tenders, that one or all of them are suitable to do the job that we want."
Mr Morrow said there was "still a question" about how many containers would be removed.
While 81 fell off the Liberian-flagged ship, 66 have been located through underwater surveys, 15 remain missing and five were recovered close to shore shortly after the incident.
"We may clean up some of it, all of it or none of it," he said. "Depending on what those tenders reveal.
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"The only risk is whether we make more mess by attempting to do it.
"Given the technology that is available today, and the lifting capacity and a range of other things, I would be confident that we should be able to move some or part of what's down there. It's unlikely all of it, because some of it would have already split."
Mr Morrow said AMSA would consult with the community, including the fishing industry, before any of the work commenced next year.
"We should have a decision on what we expect to do by January, 2020, and then have a detailed project timeline about what we pick up; when and where and how and what we can expect to see removed," he said.
The federal agency maintains Taiwanese shipping company Yang Ming will pay for the clean up.
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