The ship was trawling and pulled up fishing gear which was caught in its propeller.
It was towed to Port Otago’s X/Y sheds at the head of the harbour. Sealord Group vessel co-ordinator Theo Reeve said there was no lasting damage and the net had been removed.
A dive squad spent about a day removing the net.
"They essentially cut it away bit by bit and pulled it away bit by bit."
Rehua was originally scheduled to leave earlier in the week but that had been delayed several times. Mr Reeve said some additional maintenance work was required on the ship.
"We’ve had some holdups with trawl winches, which is totally unrelated," he said.
A Port Otago spokesman confirmed there were some delays with the maintenance on Rehua.
It was scheduled to leave tomorrow but that was "brought forward" to 11pm tonight.
