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Limitations of this indicator

The limitations of this environmental indicator for oceans are:

  • The recreational water quality indicator measures the water quality only at monitored beach sites, which may or may not be representative of recreational water quality elsewhere in New Zealand.
  • In addition, beaches are often monitored only when there is a known problem with water quality.
  • This indicator only reports on bacterial water quality. There are other water quality issues that could affect the public health risks associated with recreational use of coastal waters such as toxic algal blooms or other pollutants such as heavy metals.
The above information has come from the latest national state of the environment report, Environment New Zealand 2007.

 

Return to the water quality at coastal swimming spots page.

Last updated: December 2007