Mayor Island, Tuhua, landowners are annoyed they have yet to be directly contacted about the threat from the oil spill from the stranded container ship Rena.

The island was at one stage was said to be directly in the path of the slick from the container ship stranded on the Astrolabe Reef.

Mayor Island is a marine and birdlife reserve.

'The latest update from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council at 8pm last night was saying reports of the slick heading towards Tuhua are incorrect,” says Tuhua Island Trust board spokesman Jason Ake.

'Which is fine if you believe that there was lubricant in the water two days ago, which turned out to be heavy oil.

'The quality of information coming out of that joint is absolutely shocking in my view.”

The island's owners have been told to get their information from local media, which is not good enough, says Jason.

'People who may be directly affected deserve a little bit more than being advised via the media on such a tragic issue.”

The island is a wildlife sanctuary and there are stringent quarantine measures that have to be taken before people can even step onto the island.

The owners in conjunction with the Department of Conservation are using Tuhua for the rearing and raising of endangered native bird species.

'It would be interesting to know what their moves are. Do they want to base anything over there? What do they want to do?

'I made contact with somebody up there yesterday after getting fobbed off around the different agencies that they considered the owners of Tuhua to be part of the iwi discussion panel that they have got up there.

'I don't want to be fobbed off into an iwi closet and locked away there because that's not the issue as far as we are concerned.

'We are the immediate land owners of that island who happen to be related to the local iwi.

'There's a very, very important difference between the two, and you need to understand that.

'You can't go to the local iwi and ask them to approve people standing on the island or doing stuff on there.

'There is a governance board in place and its their responsibility to ensure that stuff happens, to approve people standing on the island or doing stuff on there.

'But hopefully it doesn't hit the island and what they are saying in their update bulletins is true.”

Image: Land Information NZ chart showing the proximity of Mayor Island to the Astrolabe Reef.