A team of Japanese officials found oil that leaked from a Japanese cargo vessel washed up along a mangrove forest off the coast of Mauritius. (Video footage provided by Japan International Cooperation Agency)

Photo/Illutration A team dispatched from Japan assesses damage from a Japanese cargo vessel that ran aground and began leaking oil off the coast of Mauritius. (Provided by Japan International Cooperation Agency)

JOHANNESBURG--A disastrous oil spill from a Japanese-owned cargo ship in the pristine waters of the scenic Mauritius coastline now stretches 10 kilometers north of where the vessel ran aground on July 25.

A team of Japanese officials dispatched to help clean up the fuel polluting world-renowned reefs held a news conference Aug. 14 to explain what they had found so far.

Six employees of the Foreign Ministry, the Japan Coast Guard and the Japan International Cooperation Agency departed Japan on Aug. 10 at the behest of the Mauritius government for help.

A videoconferencing system was used for the news conference.

The team said oil had been found as far north as 10 kilometers from the site where the ship owned by Okayama-based Nagashiki Shipping Co. ran aground in the Indian Ocean on July 25. Fuel oil began leaking from around Aug. 6.

“A major issue will be removing the oil and cleaning up the mangrove forests and shoreline,” said Junji Gomakubo, a Foreign Ministry official serving as team leader.

The team determined that almost all of the oil remaining on the ship had been recovered and the next step would be to remove the vessel, now in danger of breaking up, from the waters.

The team is trying to gauge the extent of the damage to determine what other measures need to be taken.

Team members are having to wear face masks and protective clothing, and are restricted in their movements, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

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