5.45pm update: Thames-Coromandel District Council has responded on Sunday afternoon to community members asking about the unusual appearance of a white plastic-like material that has washed up on beaches along the eastern Coromandel coast.

"Thames-Coromandel District Council and Waikato Regional Council are aware of a substance that has washed ashore on several beaches on the east coast of the Coromandel," says a Thames-Coromandel District Council spokesperson.

"Together we're assessing the extent of the problem and will work to clean it up as soon as possible. An assessment will also be carried out of the substance to determine if it's naturally occurring or man-made.

"Our Councils have also heard that a similar substance has landed on beaches on Waiheke Island, in Auckland."

Matarangi resident Peter Collins who has been trying to get someone from either of the two councils to investigate the strange substance since Friday is not impressed with how long it's taken.

"From the first calls this has been handled poorly," says Peter.

"We just wanted it investigated from the outset to see what we were dealing with. Council determined via phone and a recording that it was plastic litter."

Based on the replies Peter had from Council over the phone, he enlisted about 30 people to go start picking up the material on the Matarangi Beach on Saturday. The team collected six bags along about 100 metres of shore.

"It may still be plastic but hopefully not," says Peter.

"Posts are coming thru saying it's plastic packaging. We just need proof. It's also nothing anyone has seen before."

He says people have asked that if it is some form of seagrass, and whether dredging had killed it all, and how importart is it to the local marine ecosystem.

Coromandel MP Scott Simpson drove over from Thames on Sunday morning to meet Peter at Matarangi Beach to see for himself what the material was. Later on noticing how it had dried on his desk he thought it seemed to be a more natural fibre than a plastic one.

The issue for Peter though was in trying to engage the Thames Coromandel District Council in dealing with it. If it was plastic pollution, he felt it needed to be addressed promptly.

'A guy from the local council called me on Friday and said he was coming but then cancelled because he said the job was too big and that it was a WRC Pollution hotline team issue,” says Peter.

A marine biologist has been asked to take a look at the photos and material and determine whether it is dead seagrass from the sea beds around Slipper and Mercury Islands or whether it is something else.

The strange fibre looks like plastic. Photo: Peter Collins.

Earlier, 11am:

A Matarangi Beach resident who says he's been fobbed off by his local and regional councils is taking matters into his own hands following a strange substance coming ashore all along the eastern Coromandel Peninsula.

'On Thursday a lady on our local Facebook page posted a picture of a handful of this stuff that she picked up off the Matarangi Beach,” says Peter Collins.

'She asked ‘what is this?' I went down to have a look and saw that it's the whole length of Matarangi Beach. Over one kilometre long."

Wondering if it could be plastic he tried contacting the local district and regional councils.

Residents picking up the strange substance on Matarangi Beach. Photo: Peter Collins.

'I immediately contacted the Waikato Regional Council Pollution – WRC - team. I spoke to Anna Peterson.

They say they don't want to have to deal with it and don't have a budget and that I needed to contact the local council.”

Peter then contacted the Thames Coromandel District Council - TCDC.

'They are arguing with WRC Pollution team still and not committing to anything. On Wednesday the beach was crystal clear. This happened after that king tide on Thursday. TCDC said contact Waikato Regional Council Pollution Team. WRC says it's a local litter issue. So nothing is happening from either TCDC or WRC.”

The strange fibre. Photo: Peter Collins.

Taking matters into his own hands and recognising the importance of dealing with it if it was plastic, before it gets swept out to sea again in the next few tides, Peter organised a team of about 30 people who collected six bags of the fibres along about 100 metres of his local Matarangi Beach.

He shortly afterwards learned that it was also coming ashore on other Coromandel beaches.

'It's now Sunday and I've found out that it's all over this Coromandel eastern coastal side. It's coming in at Whangapoa Beach, Matarangi Beach, Rings Beach, Opito Beach, Kuaotunu Beach, and Otama Beach,” says Peter.

'These are pristine beaches, no people, we have no holiday makers, everything is crystal clear and we're hit with this.

'And now we have news of it at Whangamata and Waiheke Island.”

Residents picking up the plastic-like substance on Matarangi Beach. Photo: Peter Collins.

Peter describes it as looking like shredded paper.

'But it's not paper, it's like plastic. In the water it looks like another fish. It's not fresh. It looks like its old, brittle and been dumped for some time. Some people have said it's recycled plastic that was heading to Malaysia and looks like it's come out of a 20 or 40 foot container, maybe a Rena container?”

Peter heard from a friend in Takapuna that it's also arrived on St Lennard's Beach on Sunday morning. He thinks it's probably also at New Chum but hasn't been able to go and see yet, as it would be a half day trip.

'We have no idea where it's come from or if anyone is investigating it and I was wondering if it's in Whitianga, Simpsons and Cooks beaches.”

Six bags of the fibre was collected from just 100 metres along Matarangi Beach. Photo: Peter Collins.

He is calling on all residents of Coromandel to go check their local beaches.

'If you see it, it's like shredded paper and runs along the high tide line,” says Peter.

Coromandel MP Scott Simpson who was in Thames has gone to Matarangi Beach on Sunday morning to see it for himself.

'I can't believe that our territorial authorities are arguing about what is a clear need, in terms of clean-up,” says Simpson, on being told by Peter that the council had told him it was plastic litter.

'We can worry about the source later but the immediate issue is cleaning up the marine space and of course the foreshore.”

Scott took a handful of the fibres back with him and on watching them dry later thought they seemed to have more of a natural origin rather than plastic.

The issue for Peter though was in trying to engage the Thames Coromandel District Council in dealing with it. If it was plastic pollution, he felt it needed to be addressed promptly.

'A guy from the local council called me on Friday and said he was coming but then cancelled because he said the job was too big and that it was a WRC Pollution hotline team issue,” says Peter.

'I've still got the message on my phone from Anna Peterson at WRC calling me saying I'd rung the wrong council and I needed to get hold of my local council and that it was a litter problem. I rang her back and said ‘how can it be a litter problem, it's come from the sea' but she said it is what it is. She told me she had made the decision via her bosses Wayne Reid and Kent Morrissey, that it was not her issue and that I needed to contact local council.”

'So I imagined going back to local council for the third time and not getting any action from them,” says Peter.

'The issue I have is that no one from any council has come to view it and look at the beaches and see it.”

The white plastic-like material is caught up in seaweed along the beach, and has washed up into the sand, well above the low tide mark. Still not knowing if it was plastic or not, and unable to engage anyone from the councils to come have a look he recognised that if it was plastic, something needed to be done.

'If it's plastic and we don't pick it up, it will wash off back out to sea and harm our marine life and bird life,” says Peter.

He has contacted several of the local Coromandel beaches Facebook pages and groups to ask them to also check their beaches.