A scientist says attention needs to be turned to the reef on which the Rena grounded last year.
The container ship hit the Astrolabe reef off the Tauranga coast in October 2011.
Professor Chris Battershill from the University of Waikato is surveying the impact of the grounding on the environment.
He said on Insight on Sunday that if no further impact on kaimoana species is found, then he would support the idea that the wider Bay of Plenty is returning to some form of normality.
But, he said, the environmental impact on the reef is still unfolding.
More on this can be heard on Insight
