Waka pulls plastic from sea off East Coast
A waka conducting New Zealand’s first plastic trawl has found microplastics are accumulating in the waters around Kiwi shores.
Te Matau a Ma¯ui, part of the New Zealand Festival’s Waka Odyssey, pulled up plastics using a net attached to a metal ‘‘funnel’’ during its voyage from Napier.
The waka reached Cape Palliser before being turned back by Gita.
Waka captain Raihania Tipuki believed the trawl was the first of its kind in New Zealand waters. A second waka, Hinemoana, would complete the research in Wellington Harbour today.
‘‘Off the Wairarapa Coast, we were getting one or two pieces per trawl. Once we got into the harbour at Hawke’s Bay, that’s when you started to see a lot more.’’
Roughly 18 pieces of plastic were captured during one trawl at Hawke’s Bay, and that did not include nanoplastics, which would be counted from samples in a laboratory. That’s just a tiny part, if you imagine how much is floating around Hawke’s Bay.’’
The findings were dwarfed by what the team members found on Wellington’s Oriental Bay beach, though. Their survey picked up 230 macroplastics, 146 microplastics and 2412 nurdles – an industrial plastic waste that can carry concentrated levels of toxins that enter the marine food chain.
‘‘The nurdle count here is higher than any other beach that our international researchers have seen,’’ Tipuki said. ‘‘We need to be more forward thinking about all environmental issues.’’
The Waka Odyssey concluded with a ceremony on Wellington’s waterfront last weekend as four double-hulled waka and roughly 30 smaller canoes arrived in the capital.
Held as part of the New Zealand Festival, it provided an excellent opportunity to draw attention to a growing issue.