Mostly just stuff I am doing to help the planet
Tried using Mylar but it curled exactly the wrong way. Ironing helped but it did warp a little.
Even the thinner felt works, tho not quite as well, should probably have added more washers to this one.
Here is the digital file if anyone wants to signpost their own storm water drains.
Nurdles collected (between May-Jun 2013) and sent to pelletwatch.org
Collection sites
Takapuna site @-36.792585667079706,174.77987408638
Tamaki site @-36.90542586353609,174.87586833536625
Tamaki site @-36.90542586353609,174.87586833536625
South Down site @-36.929860119275695,174.8261260986328
REPORT
Due to the close proximity of the samples, we have chosen 2 out of the 4 samples you sent us based on location and plastic pellet conditions.
PCBs
PCBs are industrial and electronic chemicals, which has been banned from use in the late 70’s to 80’s. However, this chemical can still persist in the environment. We observed moderately high concentration in Southdown with 157 ng/g-pellet which coincides with a previously analyzed sample in Auckland (Browns Bay) with 65 ng/g-pellet also categorized moderately polluted (refer to PCBs NZ) However, Pakuranga, which is on the other side of the bay shows low concentration with 9.8 ng/g-pellet (rounded up to 10 ng/g-pellet in the maps) which can be categories as non-locally polluted. This could be due to the nature of the sampling sites where Southdown is an industrial area compared to Pakuranga which is more of a residential area. Compared to global concentration (refer to PCBs world) pollution status in New Zealand is moderate to low. Red spots in the global map show extremely polluted hotspots.
DDTs
A similar trend is observed with DDTs, which are pesticides also no longer in use. Southdown shows higher concentration with 11ng/g-pellet compared to Pakuranga with only 3 ng/g-pellet. In comparison with developing countries (refer to DDTs world) where DDTs were used for vector control, DDTs concentration in your samples are categories as lightly polluted and non-locally polluted for Southdown and Pakuranga respectively.
HCHs
As for HCHs, which is also a pesticide no longer in use, concentrations were low for both sites with 0.2 ng/g-pellet and 1 ng/g-pellet for Southdown and Pakuranga respectively which coincides with Browns Bay, 0.4 ng/g-pellet (Refer to HCHs NZ) suggesting no recent usage of the pesticide. However, from the same map you can observe high concentrations of HCHs north of the island (Taupo Bay and Ahipara). These seem to be agricultural sites, which may still be using the pesticide Lindane.
PAHs
Lastly, PAHs which are found in petroleum or crude oil products and combustion products generated from combusting fossil fuel and biomass, concentrations were low for both sites with 405 ng/g-pellet and 247 ng/g-pellet. These can be considered background levels mostly from combustion such as vehicle exhaust and power plant followed by atmospheric transport. From the global map of PAHs (refer to PAHs global), extremely high concentration of PAHs can be observed from the other areas in New Zealand. That is an example of oil pollution from the Rena oil spill case off the coast of Tauranga in Oct 2011.
So… Looks like we are ok for Pesticides (DDTs and HCHs) and PAHs. The PCBs in Southdown worry me. I will look further into that. It’s horrible that the ocean is full of these little poison pills, I am glad the ones I collected will not end up in any fish or birds.
My Grandmother found a book of my Grandfathers ‘The House Above the Sea’ by Ronald Lockley. Lockley was a keen environmentalist and lived just down the road from me in Glendowie. I haven’t found a book worth my full attention in years and I devoured it in a few days. His observations of my local flora & fauna are both insightful and moving. I have never read a book before where I actually know the characters, not just the birds and bugs, but the places, organisations and even the odd person! Somehow the book was even more special wondering what my Grandfather (who was quite the adventurer) thought of his rambling observations. My next walk through Tahuna Torea will be with wiser eyes.
I was really happy to help develop the Gardens for Wildlife brand for Forest & Bird.
For the launch Jett and I helped about 100 volunteers plant 4,000 trees on millions of dollars of prime real estate in Orakei. Ngati Whatua o Orakei are awesome!
Whilst trapping is still fun I find the data entry boring and unrewarding. So I have started designing an app for that. I have learnt heaps from talking about it with lots of great people. But I am still trying to understand the whole bio-security business.
Whilst planting about 500 trees and plants at Johnstons Reserve this morning we kept finding these very green earthworms. They bunched up instead of wriggling around like regular earthworms. I hope to get a good ID on NatureWatch
Fist tree out of my Nursary is a Karaka that accidentally sprouted in my Garden a few years ago. I planted it on this little ‘Island’ near Wai o Taiki Bay. Hopefully it helps hold it together.
Nurdles are pre-production microplastic pellets about the size of peas. Plastics companies melt them down to make stuff and sometimes they flush them away. Because they are Hydrophobic nasty chemicals like PCBs and DDE latch on to them, which would be cool but unforuntately they look like food and animals eat them and die. (details). I am collecting these ones in Pakuranga Creek to send to Japan for Analysis via www.pelletwatch.org
These Nurdles are likely from a local plastic manufacturing company. I will take some photos and let them know. 
Update: I checked the storm water pipes that the plastics company uses and I found no Nurdles at all! They must be coming from somewhere else. Other storm water pipes in the area seem clean, there is something suspicious about the original outlet, there are too many different kinds of pallet for them to come from one spill.
