Bacterial water quality at monitored coastal swimming spots, 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 summers

The map shows the monitoring results of the 2007–2008 and 2008-2009 summers season for coastal water quality for contact recreation.

The map uses a colour guide to show the proportion of samples from each testing site that comply with guidelines for safe levels of enterococci for contact recreation (ie, swimming).
The five classes are:

1. not sufficiently sampled
2. 95 to 100 per cent of samples comply (ie, water quality is suitable for swimming almost all the time)
3. 90 to less than 95 per cent of samples comply
4. 75 to less than 90 per cent of samples comply
5. less than 75 per cent of samples comply (ie, water quality is often unsuitable for swimming).

The map shows that the majority of sites monitored fall into class 2. Sites around Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch are seen to have the most sites that fall into classes 3, 4 and 5. These sites are typically in urban areas and/or estuaries. The map also shows scattered sites in classes 3 or 4 around New Zealand’s coast that are not in main urban areas.

View the average compliance with the guidelines for the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 summers in this spreadsheet.