Council compliance manager Tami Sargeant confirmed yesterday the council received three complaints relating to swan deaths at the lagoon, at the western end of the Otago Peninsula, on Monday.
"It is too early to say at this stage whether the health of the lagoon is a factor in the birds’ deaths or if there is another cause, such as a specific pollution event," she said.
Citizen science water quality monitoring by Ecotago showed water in the lagoon regularly surpassed national guidelines for turbidity, E. coli, nitrates, and phosphate levels, she said.
The council’s 2021-31 long-term plan included funding of $240,000 over years 2, 3 and 4 to implement water quality improvement projects with the community, she said.
An Otago Fish & Game spokesman said a field officer examined the carcasses of six black swans, a mallard duck, and a New Zealand scaup at the upper lagoon yesterday morning.
The birds were in various states of decay, some were on a track and others were in the water.
The cause of death was unknown, he said.
Like mallards, black swans are game birds.
But most of the birds, apart from the duck, had no visible wounds, the spokesman said.
The dead scaup was taken to the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital for closer inspection.
Fish & Game was monitoring the situation, he said.
Musselburgh resident Margaret McDonald said she was dismayed at the sight of the dead birds on one of her regular visits to the lagoon this week.
She said she saw a swan "clearly dying" try to climb up to the bank.
"It broke my heart," she said.
- By Hamish Maclean and Josie Stanford
