The six penguins and the egg Ms Silverstar found on Church Bay and Matiatia beaches.

Sarah Silverstar is publishing a report on the effects and circumstances around recent marine and dog deaths in the Hauraki Gulf on her website this week.

“I had heard about what was happening and was concerned so I collected the bodies. I was shocked to find so many.”

One she found had an egg next to it. “The egg was found next to a dead penguin and I suspect as it died it aborted spontaneously. It was nowhere near a burrow.”

Ms Silverstar suspects the recent bait drops on Rangitoto and Motutapu is the cause for the deaths and believes independent testing will reveal the answer. Currently eight different laboratories have been testing the dead animals over the past two weeks.

Ms Silverstar has been researching pesticides and other man-made chemicals for more than ten years and says she believes these have undermined the building blocks of life. “They create a lot of damage within the entire environment and I’m not sure people are aware of the gravity of the situation. The penguin deaths would easily be in the hundreds now. It is more extensive than (authorities) are letting on.”

Anecdotal evidence suggests fishermen have seen a lot of birds floating and washed up on the shore of Rangitoto and snapper dead on the water surface in the gulf.

From her own studies Ms Silverstar has concluded that Brodifacoum is worse than 1080 because it accumulates in the tissue of the animal, in soil and in water.

Ms Silverstar says the dogs’ deaths show symptoms of 1080 poisoning.

“When I heard about the dogs dying, I felt it was classic 1080 poisoning, however since finding out more about Brodifacoum I feel these deaths can be linked – I have my theories and I’m not alone. My feeling is puffer fish and sea slugs are scapegoats. Algal blooms are usually visible, are easily tested for, and they only occur in warmer weather.”

Ms Silverstar says that 1080 is the only chemical licensed to be dropped aerially in New Zealand. “How is it that Brodifacoum is allowed to be dropped?”

Ms Silverstar is keen to go to the islands and would like to hear from anyone who could take her by boat. Her report and account information for test donations is viewable on www.oceanaware.info. Independent testing of the dead Waiheke penguins will cost around $300 per bird.•

Minka Firth