(Image Source: SunLive)

BY MADISON MACK
ANCHOR CHRISTY LEWIS

New Zealand officials are scrambling to contain an oil spill that Environment Minister Kick Smith is calling quote “New Zealand's most significant maritime pollution disaster in decades.” ABC Australia gives an overview.

“A Liberian flagged cargo ship hit a reef two days ago creating an oil slick that’s now five kilometers long. Officials are worried the ship might break up, releasing all 1,700 tons of oil into the sea.”

Reports say 20 to 30 tons of oil have already leaked from the ship and officials are trying to remove the rest before it can seep out. But as Television New Zealand notes the ship was miles off course and should never have been close to the reef in the first place.

Reporter: “As an expert can you explain this vessel lying here.”
New Zealand Maritime School Instructor: “I would not have a clear explanation for that no.”

Maritime School Instructor: “They have radar, they’ve got a GPS that gives them their position, and of course the traditional paper chart on the chart table.”
Reporter: “That equipment should be enough?”
Maritime School Instructor: “That has been enough since World War 2 and before that.”

And Al Jazeera notes the ship had a history of problems.

“Earlier this year Australia officials detained this exact same vessel citing a number of safety violation including cracked and rusted parts.”

A second barge will start removing oil from the stranded ship on Sunday, four days after it originally hit the reef. The delay has sparked outcry from the public. The New Zealand Herald interviewed the owner of a diving school who says…

“There seem to have been slow, ill-equipped and inefficient responses from the organisations and departments that should have been doing something about this. People here are angry. They're really angry.”

According to ABC Australia a team of 200 specialists and 300 defense personnel are on standby in case the oil reaches the coast, which officials expect will happen by Wednesday.

Transcript by Newsy.