A family's claim they have seen dead dotterels on Matakana Island after containers and debris washed ashore there earlier this week, are not supported by Maritime NZ.

A Tauranga family holidaying on Matakana Island says they have found at least four dead dotterels.

Steve Abbott and Jane Divett and their family discovered remains of the rare and endangered dotterels amongst many dead birds and sea life on the island; including blue penguins, shearwaters and gulls.

While locals say it's not unusual to see some dead birds after storms, it is not common to find the rare dotterels dead.

The family say the dotterels were at the high tide mark, among considerable shipwreck debris and plastic polymer beads that have spilled from Rena's cargo.

Jake Divett photographed some of the birds with a mobile phone. A wildlife expert identified it as a shearwater. When the family went back the next day to photograph the dotterel remains, they had disappeared.

They're not sure whether the bodies of the rare birds had been taken out by the next high tide, by seagulls, or whether officials might have collected them for study.

The bodies of more common species of dead birds are marked with sticks in the sand. Despite several more searches along several kilometres of coast, the dotterel remains were not found.

Maritime New Zealand spokesman Drew Broadley says dead birds and other wildlife collected from Matakana Island are all tagged and removed to Massey University.

'From what we are aware, we haven't had any confirmation of any dotterels coming in off Matakana Island,” says Drew today.

'Pretty much everything that has been indentified to us as a dotterel, when it's been investigated, it's not been a dotterel so far.

'We've got no further reports of dotterels coming in dead or oiled. The oiled wild life response team have a wildlife expert on Matakana today. He's wandering around and just having a look over.”

The pictures of a dead seal three dead penguins and the shearwater were taken Wednesday evening.

Wendy MacPhail is also living on Matakana Island over the summer and says the whole ocean beach is covered in Rena debris.

It is scattered along the coast line from quite near the Pilot Bay end, all the way down to Bowentown, says Wendy.

'It's just hideous all the way down there, there's no part of the beach that wasn't affected by it,” says Wendy.

'The clean up has started down the Bowentown end. You can see they are taking the milk power and some of the white bags of plastic pallets above the tide line and they are trying to put timber together in big bonfire stacks.”

There are also pieces of furniture all the way along the beach, and they have collected some children's toys; a green plastic dinosaur, a plastic lion, a koala bear and a child's painting on canvas.

'It's a drawing of a heart about eight inches by eight inches, torn, but clearly a loved piece,” says Wendy.

Front Aaron Bayliss, Jake Divett (with camera), Shay Cullen.

Centre, Max Divett, Courteney Hempseed.

Back, Steve Abbott, Marjorie Divett.