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