(Reuters) - First responders and volunteers from Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday sought to contain an oil spill detected last week in the Caribbean country's waters and clean areas of Tobago island's coast already affected by the incident. Trinidad and Tobago's coast guard first spotted the spill on Feb. 7, about 6 kilometers off the coast of Studley Park, the chief secretary of Tobago's national assembly, Farley Augustine, said in a press conference on Sunday. "This is a national emergency here in Trinidad and Tobago," Prime Minister Keith Rowley said on Sunday, after saying that a vessel had capsized and made contact with a reef on the coastline, causing the spill. Reuters found at least three ships with similar names, and all their transponders were offline, LSEG vessel monitoring data showed. If the spill had happened further west, much of the oil could easily have gone to a key marine park.

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Persons: Farley Augustine, Keith Rowley, Rowley, Augustine, Stuart Young, Marianna Parraga, Aurora Ellis Organizations: Reuters, Energy, BP Locations: Trinidad and Tobago, Caribbean, Tobago island's, Trinidad, Tobago's, Studley Park, Scarborough, Tobago