It was great to see all the new faces on our Feb 26th training day! Our teams are now a mix of experienced citizen scientists and new students learning the ropes 🙂
It was a bit chilly out there, but after a brief introduction and having the scene set by Dr. Marc Schallenberg from the University of Otago, the students got stuck into their regular monitoring. And what a day to begin- with Cyanobacteria still in bloom at Site 1 (Domain Hall).. It was instantly obvious why we were all there and how important it is to get a handle on the health of Tomahawk Lagoon.
Results at a glance (compared with previous sampling date)-
Site 1 Algal bloom still active.
Chlorophyll a very high in both lagoons
E. coli increased and all Sites exceeded guidelines
Nitrogen greatly decreased from 2 Feb, but still exceed guideline values at S1-3
DRP (dissolved reactive phosphorus) lower at S4-5 and higher at S1-2. All exceed guideline values
Dissolved Oxygen S1 very low, S2 low – this makes it hard for critters and fish to survive
Check out our Results page for the most recent results and graphs
Tomahawk Lagoon Citizen Science Team 
Not so chilly today, but we noted many dead fish in the lower lagoon, any ideas ???
Andrew
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What was the dissolved oxygen like in the lower lagoon? The only other anomaly from last week was the incredibly high E. coli count in the lower lagoon.. Is it possible that dead fish were carried from the upper to lower lagoon? I would expect dead fish to be in the upper lagoon over the past few weeks when the DO was super low.
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the dissolved oxygen in the lower lagoon was between 99.7-85% saturation but hgher than the upper lagoon which was 71-80% saturation, the perch appeared to be moving up into the stream feeding the upper lagoon, to find water better saturated with oxygen
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You have enough wind, use it via wind mills to pump air into the water.
Butlers or raised water falls which ever is the most efficient.
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