Oil clean-up volunteering after the Rena grounding: An online survey
Rebecca J. Sargisson1, Sonya Hunt2, Patricia Hanlen3, Kelly Smith4, and Heather Hamerton5
1
School of Psychology, University of Waikato at Tauranga, Private Bag 12027, Tauranga 3112, New
Zealand. Phone: +64 7 577 0620, Fax: +64 7 577 5313, Email: [email protected].
2
Social Work, University of Waikato at Tauranga, Private Bag 12027, Tauranga 3112, New Zealand. Phone:
+64 7 577 0620, Fax: +64 7 577 5313, Email:
3
Social Work, University of Waikato at Tauranga, Private Bag 12027, Tauranga 3112, New Zealand. Phone:
+64 7 577 0620, Fax: +64 7 577 5313, Email:
4
Social Work, University of Waikato at Tauranga, Private Bag 12027, Tauranga 3112, New Zealand. Phone:
+64 7 577 0620, Fax: +64 7 577 5313, Email:
5
Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, Private Bag 12001, Tauranga 3 143, Aotearoa New Zealand. Phone: +64 7 571
0190, Email: [email protected]
Page 1
Author Note:
This research was made possible through collaboration between the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic,
University of Waikato, and Bay of Plenty Regional Council. The researchers would like to
specifically thank Pim de Monchy and Stephanie Twaddle, and the Bay of Plenty Regional
Council for providing access to the Rena Beach Clean-up Volunteer database and Maritime New
Zealand as primary funders of Operation Beach Clean. Special thanks must also go to the
volunteers who responded to our questionnaire, and the countless others who helped with the
clean up.
Page 2
Executive Summary
Background
On 5th October 2011, a 236-m cargo ship called the MV Rena ran aground on the
Astrolabe reef, 12 nautical miles off the coast of Tauranga, New Zealand, causing a 5-km oil
slick. In response to the expressed desire of local residents to help with the cleaning of oil from
the beach, volunteers were mobilised by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Maritime New
Zealand. To provide insight into the volunteer experience, and to gather information that may
help organisations to better organise volunteers in the future, an online survey was made
available to registered volunteers. Of a possible 6009 volunteers, 164 completed the survey.
These were 112 women and 52 men of largely Pākehā and Māori ethnicity.
Outcomes

Respondents were principally over the age of 30, with the number of female
respondents increasing to age 60, and then decreasing. The number of male
respondents remained fairly stable above age 30.

The largest percentage of respondents was employed full-time, followed by retirees.
Only small numbers of respondents were unemployed.

Volunteers from Maketū were more likely to have assisted with clean up events on
multiple occasions than volunteers from other areas.

Respondents reported feeling angry, powerless, heartbroken, and concerned when they
first heard of the Rena oil spill.

Most respondents learned about the opportunity to volunteer from television,
newspapers, or radio, showing that traditional mass-communication channels may still
outweigh more modern technologies, such as the internet.

Email and text messaging were the preferred means of communication once
respondents had registered as volunteers.

There were many reasons given by respondents for volunteering. The main reasons
were encompassed by the concept of kaitiakitanga, such as feeling a sense of duty and
responsibility, conservation, a desire to help the community and future generations.
Respondents also stated that they were regular users of the beach and wanted to
contribute to the clean-up effort.
Page 3

Respondents overwhelmingly reported that their experience as a volunteer had been
positive, and that volunteering had helped them to feel that they belonged to their
community.

Respondents agreed that the volunteer effort was well organised.

Most respondents agreed that they would be willing to volunteer again, both for oil spill
clean-up events as well as other types of disaster, and non-disaster, activities.

Distance from home and work commitments were identified as the greatest barriers to
future volunteering. Work commitments decreased as the age of respondents
increased, but the physical nature of the work increased as a barrier as the age of
respondents increased, suggesting that while older people are motivated to volunteer,
thought needs to be given as to the various capacities in which they are best able to
help.
Page 4
Introduction
On 5th October 2011, a 236-m cargo ship called the MV Rena ran aground on the
Astrolabe reef, 12 nautical miles off the coast of Tauranga, New Zealand, causing a 5-km oil slick
(Backhouse, 2011a). There was believed to be 1700 tonnes of oil, and 70 tonnes of marine
diesel, aboard the vessel (Backhouse), of which more than 350 tonnes escaped the ship within
eight days of the grounding (http://www.maritimenz.govt.nz/Rena/, retrieved 25th January,
2012; Figure 1).
Figure 1. Oil on Papamoa Beach, 12 October 2011. Photo credit: Tania Smith.
Initially, at a number of public meetings, local people expressed a range of feelings
including anger, fear, shock, horror, grief, and even outrage about the oil that washed up on
beaches along a large area of the surrounding coast. Maritime New Zealand, who are
“responsible for maintaining a nationwide capability to respond to marine oil spills of any size”
(Maritime NZ, 2012), and the New Zealand government promised to act to mitigate the oil spill.
However, it quickly became clear to response organisers that people really wanted to help
(Figure 2). Advisories to stay off all beaches so that authorities could clean up the oil were
unheeded as communities flocked to the coast to help. In response, authorities decided that it
would be better if public volunteers were mobilised and organised to assist with the clean up.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council (BOPRC), in partnership with Tauranga District and
Western Bay of Plenty District Councils, established a system for registering, training, and
equipping volunteers to assist with the cleaning up of oil on beaches at various locations,
including Mount Maunganui, Pāpāmoa, Maketū, and Motītī and Matakana Islands. Seven days
after the grounding, there were 2000 registered volunteers (Harper & Lundy, 2011). Volunteers
were required to be aged over 16 and fit enough to spend four hours on the beach on slow and
arduous work. By 25th January, 2012, 1001 tonnes of oiled solid waste had been disposed of,
with the help of thousands of volunteers (Maritime New Zealand, retrieved 25th January, 2012
Page 5
from http://www.maritimenz.govt.nz/Rena/). During the beach clean up, a total of 7950 people
registered as individual volunteers, with an additional 4904 registered as part of a group (New
Zealand Herald, 2011) spending a total of 19,725 hours cleaning up beaches (New Zealand
Herald).
Figure 2. Mural by local artists outside Papamoa Dairy. Photo credit: Dr. Ian G. McLean.
(Note that hui is a Māori word meaning meeting.)
The sheer number of volunteers and their commitment to the cleaning of Bay of Plenty
beaches (Figure 3) was described in the media as “unprecedented” (Gillespie, 2011), as it is
thought to be the first time that volunteers have successfully been used to clean beaches
following an oil spill. The negative experience of using volunteers after the Jody F. Millenium
grounding, and subsequent oil spill, in which about 25 tonnes of heavy fuel was leaked into
Poverty Bay, near Gisborne in 2002, led to reluctance by Maritime New Zealand to use
volunteers again (Pim de Monchy, personal communication, Feb 18, 2012). When the
Deepwater Horizon explosion occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, in 2010, outside contractors
undertook most of the oil-spill mitigation and clean up. Local people reported feeling shut out of
clean-up processes (Gill, Picou, & Ritchie, 2011a). Researchers noted that exclusion from cleanup efforts had a negative effect on communities, leading to social upheaval and diminished trust
in authorities and affecting community wellbeing. In the case of the Exxon Valdez spill of
37,000 tonnes of oil, in Alaska, in 1989, most of the clean-up was carried out by outsiders using
heavy machinery. Locals complained that clean-up crews were insensitive to the community,
desecrating sacred sites and leaving rubbish. Some local people were involved in the beach
Page 6
clean-up, but reportedly were often given the most hazardous jobs. As a result, people
experienced chronic stress and continued social disruption (Gill, Picou, & Ritchie, 2011b).
Figure 3. Volunteers on Papamoa beach helping to clean up oil. Photo credit: Dr. Ian G. McLean.
Research has demonstrated that volunteering leads to health and social benefits for
volunteers (Grimm, Spring, & Dietz, 2007). Volunteering is considered to be a way for
communities to cope successfully with a disaster (Halpern, 1974). A student involved in
voluntary clean up of the effects of liquifaction following the Christchurch earthquakes in 2010
and 2011 reported that the chance to volunteer was “an exciting opportunity for us to
proactively engage in problem-solving and realise that we were fully capable despite our age
and seeming lack of experience” (http://newzealand.ifsa-butler.org/christchurchs-studentvolunteer-army-getting-stuff-done/).
In order to survey volunteers, and gain information about their volunteering experience,
we developed an online questionnaire, in consultation with BOPRC staff at the Rena Incident
Command Centre (ICC), which was made available to volunteers registered on the BOPRC
website. Volunteers were notified by email of the availability of the questionnaire, which
remained open for 24 days from 21 November 2011.
The aim of the research was both to provide insight into the volunteer experience, and
to reflect on approaches to volunteer organisation which could be useful to communities were
faced with a similar event in the future.
Method
Respondents
All volunteers registered with the Operation Beach Clean webpage at the time of the
questionnaire availability, and with a valid email address (6009 people; Pim de Monchy,
personal communication, Feb 28, 2012) managed by BOPRC were emailed an invitation to
Page 7
complete the questionnaire. Most of the volunteers who completed the questionnaire were
part of the general volunteer pool (N = 145, 75.52%), with 9.38% (N = 18) involved in iwi, or
marae-based, volunteer pools, 3.65% (N = 7) in corporate or group pools, and 5.73% (N = 11) in
other volunteer pools, for example, Adopt-A-Beach (N = 4). Respondents were 112 women and
52 men. The distribution of ages of the respondents is shown in Figure 4.
Percentage (%)
25
20
15
10
5
0
Age of vounteers
Figure 4. Percentage of respondents in each age category.
Most respondents were of Pākehā (N = 95, 59.38%) or Māori (N = 23, 14.38%) ethnicity,
with an additional 28 (17.50%) identifying themselves as New Zealanders. Two (1.25%)
respondents identified as each of the following ethnicities: Samoan, English, and Korean, and
one respondent (0.63%) identified as each of these ethnicities: South African, Asian, Chinese,
Scottish, Irish, German, British, Fijian.
Instruments
The survey was designed by the authors, in consultation with BOPRC staff at the Rena
ICC, and loaded onto SurveyGizmo for completion online.
Ethics
Ethical approval was received by the University of Waikato’s School of Psychology Ethics
Committee (#11/39).
Procedure
Once the questionnaire was loaded onto the website, volunteers registered with the
BOPRC were sent an email inviting them to complete the questionnaire. The questionnaire was
made available on 21 November 2011, which was 46 days after the Rena struck the Astrolabe
reef off the coast of Tauranga. The questionnaire was available for 24 days, and two reminders
were emailed while the questionnaire was available.
Page 8
Data analysis
Some of the survey questions required the respondent to select from a number of
response options, while other questions were open-ended and interpreted using qualitative
thematic analysis. The forced-choice questions were subjected to statistical and graphical
analysis using Microsoft Excel®, Statistica®, and Sigmaplot®. Although a sample size of 164 of a
potential volunteer population of 6009 is small, and the respondents were self-selected, the
sample is likely to be representative of the population as there appeared to be little variation in
responses. Additionally, the thematic analysis reached saturation of themes with the existing
sample, suggesting that the sample size was adequate (Morse, 2007).
Results and Discussion
Demographic Information
For each gender, the percentage of respondents in each age category was calculated
and is shown in Figure 5. Figure 5 shows that there were slightly different participation patterns
for men and women. Participation by both men and women was extremely low among 16- to
20-year olds, with participation increasing with age for both genders. Participation peaked at
19.23% for men in the 31- to 40-year age category, remaining stable with increasing age from
that age onwards (except for a decreased participation rate for 41- to 50-year olds). For women,
age of participation peaked later, in the 51-to 60-year age group (26.79% of female respondents
were in this age category), and decreased with increasing ages over 60 years. Thus, it might be
concluded that men above the age of 31 were equally likely to participate, whereas women’s
participation rate declined above the age of 60. It is possible, however, that older women
assisted in other ways, for example by providing food for volunteers, or minding children so that
men and younger women could participate in beach-cleaning activities. It is also possible that
older women were equally likely to volunteer, but less likely to complete an online survey than
men of the same age.
For male respondents, 88.24% of those identifying as either Māori or Pākehā were
Pākehā, compared to 77.38% of female respondents, showing that a higher proportion of men
were likely to be Pākehā than was the case for women.
Men were more likely than women to have volunteered on more than one occasion, as
seen in Figure 6 where the male data are skewed to the right of the female. The most common
number of separate volunteer occasions for men (the mode) was two, and for women, one.
Page 9
Women were also slightly more likely than men to register to volunteer, but not participate in
any clean-up events.
Percentage of male and
female respondents (%)
30
25
Male
Female
20
15
10
5
0
16-20
21-30
31-40
41-50
51-60
61-70
70+
Age group (years)
Figure 5. Percentage of male and female respondents (calculated separately) of each age group.
For example, of all male respondents, 19% were aged between 31 and 40.
Percentage of male and
female respondents (%)
30
25
20
Male
Female
15
10
5
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 15 16 18 26 35 38 40
Number of volunteer occasions
Figure 6. Percentage of men and women (calculated separately for each gender) as a function of
number of volunteer occasions. For example, 27% of all female respondents volunteered on
only one occasion.
Women tended to identify a larger number of memberships or affiliations with
community and charitable organisations (mean = 1.17) than did men (mean = 0.88), and Māori
reported a greater number of affiliations with community groups (mean = 1.43) than did Pākehā
(mean = 1.03). However, contrary to previous research (Michel, 2007), there was no relationship
between the number of charitable organisations or community groups to which volunteers
belonged and the number of occasions on which they volunteered (r(160) = .05, p = .05).
Page 10
In terms of employment status (Figure 7), which was provided by 161 respondents, the
largest percentage of volunteers (31.58%) was employed full-time. After this group, the nextlargest groups of volunteers were retired persons (13.60%), part-time employed (12.28%), selfemployed (11.40%), unpaid workers (10.09%), and studying (8.33%). Small numbers of
respondents identified themselves as beneficiaries (4.39%), full-time parents (3.51%), casual
workers (1.75%), or unemployed (1.32%). There were very few gender or ethnic differences in
employment status. A higher percentage of male (20.83%) and Pākehā (17.07%) respondents
described themselves as retired than did female (10.81%) or Māori (2.50%) respondents.
Additionally, a greater percentage of Māori respondents (15.00%) were studying than were
Pākehā (5.69%).
Percentage (%)
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Employment status
Figure 7. Percentage of respondents according to employment status.
Place of residence, or distance of residence from clean-up locations, significantly
affected the number of times respondents participated in clean up events (according to a oneway ANOVA in which place of residence was grouped into Tauranga, Pāpāmoa, Mount
Maunganui, Maketū, 10 – 149 km away, or more than 150 km away, and excluding the three
overseas respondents; F(5, 153) = 15.79, p = .00). Specifically, respondents from all areas,
except Maketū, volunteered on average between 3.00 and 4.63 times, whilst respondents who
resided in Maketū volunteered on an average of 27.25 separate occasions. Given the selfselected nature of the respondents, however, it may be the case that those volunteers who
Page 11
responded to the questionnaire spent more time helping than those who did not respond to the
questionnaire.
Feelings on Hearing about the Rena Grounding and Oil Spill
In an open-ended format, respondents were asked for their initial feelings after hearing
about the Rena grounding and subsequent oil spill. We grouped the feelings into 10 categories
(Table 1).
Table 1
Categories of feelings, with actual words used by respondents, and the number of times feelings
from each category were mentioned.
Categories of Feelings
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Angry feelings including anger, annoyed, fury, incensed, rage, outrage,
Powerless, appalled, despair, desperation, devastation, distraught,
gutted, doom and gloom, distress, dismay, frustration, helpless,
horrified, panic, shock, speechless
Disheartened, heartbroken, emotional, hurt, loss of taonga6, sadness,
tearful, upset, not happy, disappointed, terrible
Concerned, worried , dread, nervous and scared
Determination to help fix it, gratitude to those who got on and helped
Disbelief, surprise, couldn’t believe how little media attention
Incompetence, negligence
Not surprised, not overly anxious, accidents happen, hopeful Maritime
NZ had handle on situation
Disgust, sick
Environmental disaster, embarrassment for NZ’s image
Number of
times reported
83
76
53
36
15
9
8
7
4
4
Anger. When the “angry” feelings of Category 1 were grouped to include anger, annoyance,
fury, incense, rage, and outrage, it was found that a large number of respondents reported
feelings of this nature, with 83 references to these emotions. (I felt) “anger at the government’s
lack of response and focus on the All Black games and groin injury. Incensed that NZ has skewed
values. Powerless.”
6
Taonga means “property, goods, possessions, effects, treasure, something prized”
(http://www.maoridictionary.co.nz/index.cfm?dictionaryKeywords=taonga&n=1&idiom=&phrase=&prov
erb=&loan=).
Page 12
When those respondents who immediately thought about issues of incompetence and
negligence on the part those sailing the ship were also included in Category 1, the number of
comments expressing anger increased to 91. “I wanted to tar and feather the skipper, then my
next thought was who is going to pay”. “I found it incredible that a ship that was not disabled,
could hit the reef when the charts clearly show there are reefs.”
Powerlessness. Feelings of powerlessness, including helplessness, despair, desperation,
devastation, dismay, panic, appal, distress, frustration, horror, and shock were expressed 76
times. “Horror for the sea animals that I knew were on the Mount rocks, and the orcas that were
due to come through.”
It was quite an emotional thing going down to the beach and seeing the black tide and
neighbours all there, all feeling helpless since we’d been told to stay off the beach and let the
experts get on with cleaning up the oil.
Loss. Feelings of loss, heartbreak, sadness, tearfulness, unhappiness, and emotion were
expressed 53 times. “Loss of natural taonga, surfing, who and how we are.”
Concern. Feelings of concern, worry, and being scared, or a combination of these feelings
were expressed 36 times. “Having lived abroad the waiting sense of dread, knowing it was only
going to get worse before getting better, was unbearable.”
Other feelings. Other feelings were reported by smaller numbers of respondents when they
first heard about the Rena grounding and oil spill (as outlined in Table 1). These included;
determination to fix the situation (“I was appalled this could happen and wanted to know what I
could do to help”; “We as a community needed to act quickly”), disbelief and surprise (“Not here
on our patch”), unsurprised, more accepting that accidents happen (“what an idiot but
something similar bound to happen sometime”), disgust (“I felt sick”), and embarrassment for
New Zealand’s green image.
Overall, people overwhelmingly felt anger, and powerlessness, reporting heartbreak and
loss, worry and dread, disgust, and concern for New Zealand’s image and environment. A small
group of people were more fatalistic. At the time of hearing about the oil spill, a small group
immediately wanted to help to ensure the effects were minimised. Only one person expressed
initial hope and optimism that things were being managed the best as they could be by
Maritime New Zealand.
Communication about Volunteering
When asked how they first heard about volunteering after the Rena oil spill, three
channels of information were most prominent: television (N = 26, 15.57%), newspaper (N = 24,
Page 13
14.37%), and radio (N = 23, 13.17%). These methods combined (43.11% of responses)
outweighed more modern mass-communication channels, such as internet news sites (N = 9,
5.39%) and the BOPRC’s own website (N = 9, 5.39%), and may partly reflect the age of the
respondents (Figure 4). (Note, however, that, as the questionnaire was conducted online, all
respondents were computer literate.) Figure 8 shows the full breakdown of method of first
Percentge of
respondents (%)
learning of the volunteering opportunities.
15
10
5
0
Method of finding out about volunteering
Figure 8. Percentage of respondents who indicated each method of first learning about the
opportunity to volunteer for beach-cleaning activities following the Rena oil spill.
Once registered, respondents indicated that their main source of communication about
volunteer events was via text messaging (N = 77, 45.29%) and email (N = 73, 42.94%), with an
additional four respondents (2.35%) indicating that they used both email and text messaging.
Two respondents (1.18%) relied on social networking sites, and one respondent each (0.52%)
indicated that they were informed via website information, a neighbour, media, and mail. Email
and text were the preferred method of communication for 50 and 46.75% of the respondents,
respectively.
Reasons for Volunteering
In an open-ended question, respondents were asked the main reason they volunteered
with Operation Beach Clean. The reasons were grouped in categories, and sub-categories, and
are shown in Table 2, along with the number of times each reason was reported.
Many reasons could be encompassed by the concept of kaitiakitanga, which is a broad
concept which encompasses guardianship, and resource management, both in environmental
and social dimensions. According to Kawharu (2000), kaitiakitanga embraces ideas of hospitality,
obligation, sustainable development, and care of future generations.
Page 14
Table 2
Categories of reasons given for volunteering for beach cleaning activities, and the number of times each reason was reported. Note that a single respondent
may have entered multiple reasons, and each reason was counted separately.
Reasons for volunteering
1
2
Local beach user
Contribution
3
4
Prevention
Kaitiakitanga
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Availability
Feelings
Companionship
History
Perception of ineptitude
Boredom
Knowledge
Local(home)/Ownership/Beach User/Love of the beach/To be able to use the beach again/Fishing/Surfing
Do my bit/be pro-active(constructive)/make good what was bad/help(contribute)/required co-ordinated
response/make a difference/help economy/business community/so the workers can go back to work
To clean up/prevent the situation worsening/make the beach safe
Responsibility/obligation/duty/needed to be done/had to do something to help/wanted to be there/give back
Conservation
Community: Community/ help the whanau/tribal connections/show support/ownership
Future generations (grandchildren)
Spare time
Felt grief/helpless (powerless)/concern/shock (distress/sad)
To meet people/to be part of a team
Volunteer history/shared experience due to previous disaster
Perception of not enough being done (by authorities)
Something to do/bored
To be prepared and know what to do if it happens where I live
Page 15
Number
of times
reported
104
83
36
34
32
15
6
9
8
6
5
4
3
1
Local Beach User. Overwhelmingly, respondents indicated that they chose to assist because they
lived locally and/or used the beach for recreational purposes. They stated that they were motivated
to volunteer for reasons such as walking, swimming, surfing, fishing, and wished to be able to use
the beach again (N = 104).
I grew up at the beach, live close by and walk my dog, it was not the fault of the sea, tangaroa or
the community, so rather than get the blame (I) just decided to get stuck in when the opportunity
arrived.
Contribution. Another strong theme concomitant with being a local beach user was the need to
contribute (N = 83). Respondents often reported that as they used the beach frequently they felt the
need to assist with the oil spill clean up. Within this theme were statements about the need to ‘do
my bit’, to ‘help/contribute’, ‘be pro-active/constructive’ and ‘make a difference’ as well as ‘help the
economy/business community’. “An absolute need to do something to help. The love we feel for our
coastline is a tangible emotion. As we would have helped humans in an accident, we owe our
environment similar attention when it was under siege”.
Prevention. Prevention was stated 36 times as a reason for volunteering in the Rena Oil
Spill. Statements such as the ‘need to clean-up’, to prevent the situation worsening, and to make the
beach safe were made.
Kaitiakitanga. Some respondents indicated that they chose to volunteer in order to act as a
‘guardian’ of the coastline, to protect and preserve the environment for themselves, the wildlife,
and future generations. These themes of kaitiakitanga were interrelated with feelings of
responsibility, conservation concerns, apprehension for future generations, and sense of community.
Feelings of responsibility, duty, having to do something to help, wanting to be there, and
needing to give back were strong reasons for volunteering with the Rena Oil Spill clean-up and were
made 34 times to explain volunteering. “It’s my duty. It’s a place I love.”
Conservation or environmental concerns were given 32 times as a reason for volunteering.
“Our natural environment is our real home, without the sea we are nothing. I have a great need (for)
and love of nature. Desperately concerned for the sea creatures and water itself.”
Concern for future generations was another theme related to kaitiakitanga. Six statements
were made by respondents about assisting in the clean-up so that their grandchildren could use and
enjoy the coastline. “We are the guardians for the future generations. Get in and clean, get it back to
what it was for my children to enjoy what I have enjoyed.”
Fifteen statements indicated that respondents assisted with Operation Beach Clean because
their sense of community, need to help whanau, tribal connections, to show support, and feelings of
Page 16
ownership. “As I come from Matakana it was more about doing my part to help the whānau back
home.”
Nine statements were made that respondents assisted in the clean-up as they had time to
spare. Some respondents reported strong emotion behind the reasons for volunteering. Overall,
seven statements revealed feelings of helplessness/powerlessness, concern, shock, and distress
were behind their reasons to volunteer. Six statements indicated that the respondents volunteered
for companionship, to meet people and to be part of a team and five because of a history, either of a
tradition of volunteering in the community or because they had experienced a previous disaster.
Four comments specified that the respondents volunteered due to perceptions of ineptitude by local
authorities.
Categorised as boredom, a small number of comments suggested that respondents
volunteered because they were bored, or for ‘something to do’. This could be a reflection of New
Zealand culture, in which individuals are reluctant to be seen to be promoting themselves above
others and are not demonstrative (New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, 2009). A comment suggesting
they volunteered because of boredom may reflect the self-depreciating New Zealand style of
communication.
Three comments expressed respondents’ feelings of guilt about not being involved in the
clean-up. These respondents stated that volunteering helped them to deal with their emotions
about the oil spill.
Volunteer Experience
Quantitative. Respondents indicated their degree of agreement with a series of Likert-type
statements regarding their volunteering experience, as either strongly agree, agree, neither agree
nor disagree, disagree, or strongly disagree. Respondents were also provided with a comment box in
order to expand on any of their responses. Table 3 displays the percentage of respondents selecting
each response to the statements. The responses were assigned a number from 1 (Strongly Disagree)
to 5 (Strongly Agree), and the mean and standard deviation for each statement calculated (also
shown in Table 3). Thus, higher mean numbers reflect a greater degree of overall agreement with
the statement.
The highest mean agreement was found for the Statement 6 (‘I would be willing to volunteer
for future Rena oil-spill clean-ups’). The high level of agreement (mean = 4.41), and small variability
(SD = 0.87), associated with this statement indicates that respondents remained highly motivated
even once clean-up operations had ceased. There was no relationship between the level of
agreement and the number of times the volunteers had participated in clean-up events (r(156) = .04,
Page 17
p = .63), suggesting that it was not the case that respondents became fatigued, as those who had
volunteered on multiple occasions were equally likely to respond positively to the possibility of
volunteering further. However, when the number of times each respondent had volunteered was
categorised into three groups: None, One, or More than one, a one-way ANOVA showed that the
level of agreement with Statement 6 generally increased with increasing number of volunteer events
(F(2, 155) = 5.68, p = .004), as shown in Figure 9.
Mean agreement with
Statement 6
5.0
4.5
4.0
3.5
3.0
None
One
More than one
Number of volunteer events
Figure 9. Mean level of agreement with Statement 6 (‘I would be willing to volunteer for future
Rena oil-spill clean-ups’) as a function of the number of times the respondent participated in
clean up events. (Note that higher numbers on the y axis indicate stronger agreement with the
statement.) Error bars show the standard error of the mean.
The next highest mean agreement was found for Statement 7 (‘I would be willing to volunteer
for other disaster-relief activities’; mean = 4.39, SD = 0.82), reinforcing the suggestion that
respondents were not fatigued by their participation in oil-spill clean-up activities. A similar pattern
was found as in Figure 9, in that willingness to volunteer in the future increased with increasing
volunteer events, but this increase was not significant (F(2, 156) = 2.25, p = .11).
Interestingly, of the three statements addressing future volunteering, the lowest mean
agreement was recorded for Statement 8 (‘I would be willing to volunteer for non-disaster
programmes’; mean = 4.03, SD = 0.89). This finding perhaps sheds light on the difficulty of obtaining
volunteers for non-urgent programmes, such as coastal environmental-restoration projects. It
suggests that in order to engender volunteer assistance, organisers of volunteer efforts should stress
the urgency of the required response. Only 57.76% of respondents agreed that the Rena oil spill had
affected their day-to-day life (Statement 10; mean = 3.55, SD = 1.27), suggesting that their volunteer
response was not premised on the fact that they were personally impacted by the disaster.
Page 18
Table 3
Mean, standard deviation (in brackets), and percentage of respondents selecting available responses for each statement
Mean (SD)
Strongly
agree (5)
Agree
(4)
Neither agree
nor disagree (3)
Disagree
(2)
Strongly
disagree (1)
1
The information about volunteering was clear
3.90 (1.06)
28.40
51.85
5.56
9.88
4.32
2
Good training and instructions were provided to me during the
clean up
3.72 (1.09)
22.01
48.43
14.47
9.43
5.66
3
Adequate safety equipment was provided to me during the clean
up
4.26 (0.89)
45.22
43.31
7.01
1.27
3.18
4
Tools were available to effectively pick up the oil
3.48 (1.21)
18.47
42.04
19.75
8.92
10.83
5
I felt I made an effective contribution to the clean-up
4.03 (0.90)
29.75
51.90
12.66
2.53
3.16
6
I would be willing to volunteer for future Rena oil-spill clean-ups
4.41 (0.87)
55.70
37.34
2.53
1.27
3.16
7
I would be willing to volunteer for other disaster-relief activities
4.39 (0.82)
53.46
37.11
6.29
1.26
1.89
8
I would be willing to volunteer for non-disaster programmes
4.03 (0.89)
31.88
46.88
15.63
3.75
1.88
9
I recommended volunteering for Operation Beach Clean to others
4.18 (1.03)
45.86
38.85
7.64
2.55
5.10
10
The Rena oil spill has personally affected me in my day-to-day life
3.55 (1.27)
29.19
28.57
17.39
18.01
6.83
Page 19
Most respondents (84.71%) indicated that they had recommended volunteering for oil-spill
clean up to others (Statement 9; mean = 4.18, SD = 1.03), suggesting that their overall experience of
volunteering was positive. Most respondents (81.65%) also felt that they had personally made an
effective contribution to the clean up (Statement 5), with agreement increasing with increasing
participation in volunteer events in a similar pattern to Figure 7 (None: mean = 2.29, One: Mean =
3.92, More than one: mean = 4.17; F(2, 155) = 17.79, p = .000). Seven respondents made positive
comments about volunteering, including expressing “satisfaction that the local people did the job
rather than leaving it to the ‘authorities’”, and speaking of the heightening of community spirit. “It was
touching to meet genuine people with the same objectives. The community spirit is evident, and alive.”
Respondents appeared satisfied with the safety equipment provided (Statement 3; mean =
4.26, SD. 0.89), with 88.53% of respondents indicating agreement. They were less satisfied with the
efficacy of the tools provided (Statement 4; mean = 3.48, SD = 1.21), however, with only 60.51% of
respondents agreeing that they were adequate. Analysis of the comments made by respondents
suggested that the provision of tools improved over time, with some respondents stating that tools
were devised by them in response to need.
The locals and the people on the ground devised and donated the tools, e.g. the milk bottle scoops
and shade cloth sieves. The rakes, shovels, etc, officials thought we would need we didn’t. They
needed to come onto the beach with us and see what we were doing and where the oil was.
The level of agreement with Statements 1 (‘The information about volunteering was clear’;
mean = 3.90, SD = 1.06) and 2 (‘Good training and instructions were provided to me during the clean
up’; mean = 3.72, SD = 1.09) suggests that there is room for improvement by volunteer coordinators in
response to future disasters.
Qualitative. In addition to the Likert-type statements, respondents were asked, in an openended format, to indicate their feelings about the volunteer experience. A total of 161 people
commented on their experiences as a volunteer. Overwhelmingly respondents’ comments were
positive (N = 144). Only 11 respondents made negative comments and four made neutral comments.
The responses were organized into five categories: positive responses, feedback on community or
social aspects, negative responses, feedback on the organisation of volunteers, including
communication and information, and comments on the work itself. The categories, divided further into
sub-categories, are shown in Table 4, along with the number of comments made which applied to each
category.
Positive Responses. Of the 144 positive comments, 74 were brief, stating that the experience
had been “good” or “great”, or that they had enjoyed it. Other words used to describe the experience
were “fun”, “loved it” and “wonderful.” “It was awesome! We had a great time, it was a lovely day
Page 20
down on the beach.” Many others reported feelings of satisfaction that the work they had done was
rewarding and contributed to the clean up. “It was boring work but at least I felt that I was doing
something positive in a terrible situation.” “Very rewarding and helped to gain more knowledge about
what was really happening on the beach.” There were five reports of feeling humbled, particularly by
the amount of support offered to volunteers. “Rewarding. Wonderful, friendly people I met each day.
Those organizing us were most helpful and friendly. Coming off the beach and being offered so much
food etc was humbling. I didn’t help for a free feed!”
Community Aspects. Many people commented on the feeling of belonging or being part of the
community that they experienced. “I had done my bit to help and as a recent resident in the BOP I felt
like I now belonged.” “Brilliant to know there are like-minded people out there that care. The positive
community spirit was overwhelming to see, strangers coming together for a great cause… that’s what
it’s all about.”
Others were very appreciative that so many people had travelled from far away to help. “The
best thing was meeting the variety of people who felt drawn to help – overseas students,
visitors/holiday makers, people who had specifically travelled from other areas. I met very few who
actually lived in the area.” “It went a long way to assuaging the anger. I was proud of the commitment
of volunteers at Maketu and of the community taking charge, especially a community with a high
Deprivation Index.”
Many people who reported positively on their experience also said that they had found the
clean-up frustrating. “It was frustrating picking up bits of oil from the beach at Pāpāmoa – it felt a bit
futile at times, but overall it felt good to be involved in the community volunteer effort.”
Negative Responses. A small number of negative responses (N = 27) were reported that
demonstrated that not all volunteers had enjoyed the experience. “I had to travel from Auckland so
did not know that they were not getting enough volunteers. I would have liked toilets on the
uncontaminated side at Pāpāmoa. I did not feel at all welcome to participate on arrival. The
atmosphere was dreadful.”
Organisation. Twelve comments indicated that the volunteer clean-up was well organised.
“The event was well organized with all the right equipment and transport.” Others said that things
were not well organized, although several people noted that organization had improved over time.
“Disorganised at the start (understandable) but continuous improvement to the system so the system
worked well at the end.”
Page 21
Table 4
Categories, and sub-categories, identified in response to open-ended questioning about respondents’
experience as a volunteer, and the number of times each were mentioned
Number
Category
Category
Sub-category
of times
total
reported
Positive
Good/ Great/ Happy/ Enjoyed/ Fun/ Positive
74
Good to help/Made a difference/ Worthwhile/
36
Important/ Motivated/ Valued
Satisfied/Empowered/Rewarding/Reduced
23
anger/Contributed to growth
Humbled
5
Informative/Interesting
2
Uplifted/Spiritual/Meditative
2
Thought-provoking
1
Learned strategies
1
144
Community
Kotahitanga/Belonging/Giving to community
24
Great people/Liked the social/Proud of community
22
Appreciative (of support for volunteers, Army,
17
Maritime NZ)
Travelled to volunteer/Appreciated that others had
6
travelled
Did own clean-up
2
Helping the environment
2
Politically motivated
1
74
Negative
Frustrated
10
Unhappy/disappointed/bad experience/not valued/
10
discouraged
Angry
3
Indifferent
1
Upset at environmental effects
1
Worried about Corexit
1
Upset at smell
1
27
Organisation
Well organized
12
Better organization needed
8
Improved over time
7
Good equipment
6
Lack of information/poor communication
5
Volunteer limits (100 people)/limited opportunities
3
Good communication
3
Lack of equipment
1
45
Work
Tough/hard work
13
Slow progress
6
Wanted to do more
6
Time commitment
2
Not clean enough yet
2
Stressful
1
30
Page 22
Several comments were made about the equipment provided for the clean-up.
Very impressed with how well it was organized and the generosity of the volunteers and others –
and the fact that there was more than enough protective equipment available. Liked the way that
new cleaning methods (hand picking, sifting etc) were explored. And nobody made you feel you
were doing it wrong.
Only a very small number of comments were made about the communication with volunteers,
with three comments that communication was good (“Great use of email and text, I felt informed.”)
and five that it was poor. “I'm not sure when specific call ups (which I never personally received)
transitioned to 'bums on the beach' and I may have been able to help sooner if I'd been aware of that
change of volunteer status.”
A small number of comments were also made about the limited opportunities to volunteer. “It
was hard when there were ' first 100’ people as I was prepared to travel but didn't want to travel for 3
hours there to be turned away.” “Felt disappointed I could not help more... 4 hrs at a time was a good
amount however only able to help working 4 hrs per weekend limited opportunities to help.”
Respondents also commented on the work itself, with 13 reports of finding the work hard.
“Hard work but something that had to be done.” “It was very hard work and I got really tired, but I
could see the difference we volunteers were making and how much oily waste we collected.” “I felt a
great deal of satisfaction in helping sift the sand despite the demands on my body (i.e. kneeling for up
to 5 hours 3 days in a row).” Some people also commented on how slow and painstaking the work was.
...very sad to see the great numbers of people volunteering yet making little progress, I couldn't
have offered any solutions but it seemed wrong that machines could not do a more efficient job
than people using just their hands to collect oil.
In addition, some people found it stressful, and wanted to do more to help. “Surprised at how well I
coped in a stressful situation, working with other volunteers, many of whom were tense and upset
about various things.” “I did not do enough, did not have more time.”
Future Volunteering
Interestingly, there was little difference between men and women in terms of the barriers
identified to future volunteering. A slightly higher percentage of women identified work commitments
as a potential barrier than did men, but otherwise, the barriers identified were very similar, as shown
in Figure 10.
Page 23
Percentage of male and
female respondents (%)
30
Male
Female
20
10
0
Barriers to future volunteering
Figure 10. Percentage of men and women (calculated separately for each gender) who identified each
barrier to future volunteering.
Māori and Pākehā cited work commitments and distance from home equally often as
potential barriers to future volunteering, but Māori were more likely to cite child-care commitments
than were Pākehā, and Pākehā more likely to cite the physical nature of the work and the time
Percentage of male and
female respondents (%)
requirement than Māori as shown in Figure 11.
30
Māori
Pākehā
20
10
0
Barriers to future volunteering
Figure 11. Percentage of Māori and Pākehā respondents (calculated separately for each ethnicity)
citing each barrier to future volunteering.
Taking just the five most common barriers identified that might impinge on future
volunteering, the barriers were considered by age, and are shown in Figure 12. Unsurprisingly, work
Page 24
commitments and child care declined as barriers for the over 60 age groups, whilst the physical nature
of the work increased as a barrier. Given the desire of older people (especially men, see Figure 5) to
contribute to disaster-relief efforts, organisers of volunteer pools might consider other tasks that older
people could undertake that are not as strenuous, such as provision of food and refreshments, or seek
Percentage of each age group
(%)
a shorter time commitment from such volunteers.
60
Distance from home
Child care
Time requirement
50
Work commitments
Physical nature of work
40
30
20
10
0
16-20
21-30
31-40
41-50
51-60
61-70
70+
Age group (years)
Figure 12. Percentage of respondents in each age group identifying each of the most common barriers
to future volunteering.
Other comments
A wide number of issues were brought up as 'other comments' in this study. Personal issues
such as the age restriction, where children under 16 years could not volunteer, the 4-hour
requirement, and the assumed physical activity, may have discouraged people from volunteering, or
restricted their commitment. Personal time constraints because of work and family responsibilities or
decontamination requirements may also have affected people’s attitudes to volunteering. However, a
number of people were appreciative of the opportunity to join such an organised activity and one
appreciated the food. Organisational issues were variable but it would appear that the response was
less well organised at the beginning of the work, for example with registration, but training,
communication and notification methods progressively improved. There were concerns about
untrained people and privately-organised groups who were unaware of the safety information. There
was also mention of the uneven nature of resource distribution and clean-up areas receiving attention.
Some volunteers were surprised at the wide variety of people who volunteered from various locations
and, although the media was involved, it was felt that there had been some lost opportunities to
Page 25
capture this variety. There were occasional comments about political issues, criminal justice, health
and social issues, but overall most volunteers enjoyed the social interaction volunteering afforded
them, some were personally appreciative of others cleaning up their beach, and happy about the level
of response to a community and environmental issue.
Conclusions
In summary, the questionnaire results indicated that Operation Beach Clean-up was viewed
positively by the vast majority of respondents who registered as volunteers. Respondents were
overwhelmingly positive about their volunteering experience, recommended volunteering to others,
and indicated their willingness to volunteer again in the future. The fact that the organisation of the
volunteer programme was said to have improved over time shows that local people and government
bodies are able to work collaboratively and responsively to remedy environmental disasters.
Organisers of volunteer efforts should be aware that the main barriers identified to volunteering
were the distance of the volunteer location from home, and work commitments. As the largest
majority of volunteers are likely to be full-time employed persons, thought should be given to flexible
volunteering hours that would suit a range of people. Older people also constitute a large proportion
of volunteers, and the physical nature of the volunteer work was identified as a barrier for older
people. Therefore, organisers could provide volunteer opportunities for older people that are less
physically demanding.
Although further research is needed, the results of the questionnaire suggest that
volunteering assisted people to deal with their grief over the oil spill, and helped to unify local
communities, showing that the benefit of engaging locals as volunteers in situations of environmental
disaster are more considerable than merely expediting its remediation.
Page 26
References
Backhouse, M. (2011). Ship at risk of breaking up. New Zealand Herald, 6 October, 2011.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10757036
Gill, D. A., Picou, J. S., & Ritchie, L. (2011a). The BP disaster as an Exxon Valdez return. Contexts,
10(3). Retrieved from http://contexts.org/articles/summer-2011/the-bp-disaster-as-an-exxonvaldez-rerun/
Gill, D. A., Picou, J. S., & Ritchie, L. (2011b). The Exxon Valdez and BP oil spills: A comparison of initial
social and psychological impacts. American Behavioral Scientist, 10(10), 1-21. doi:
10.1177/0002764211408585
Gillespie, K. (2011). Rena: Volunteer’s work unprecedented. Bay of Plenty Times, 7 November 2011.
http://www.bayofplentytimes.co.nz/news/volunteers-work-unprecedented/1163788/
Grimm, R., Spring, K., & Dietz, N. (2007). The health benefits of volunteering: A review of recent
research Retrieved from
http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/fileadmin/docdb/pdf/2007/07_0506_USAbenefits_health
.pdf
Halpern, E. (1974). Volunteering in times of community crisis: An integration within Caplan's theory
of support systems. The Canadian Psychologist, 15(242-250).
Harper, P. & Lundy, S. (2011). Rena: Public urged to keep away. New Zealand Herald, 14 October,
2011. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10757036.
Kawharu, M. (2000). Kaitikitanga: A Maori anthropological perspective of the Maori socioenvironmental ethic of resource management. The Journal of the Polynesian
Society, 109, 349-370.
Maritime NZ (2012, January 26). http://www.maritimenz.govt.nz/Environmental/Responding-tospills-and-pollution/Responding-to-spills-and-pollution.asp
Michel, L. M. (2007). Personal responsibility and volunteering after a natural disaster: The case of
Hurricane Katrina. Sociological Spectrum, 27, 633-652.
Morse, J. M. (2007). Sampling in grounded theory. In A. Bryant & K. Charmaz (Eds.), The Sage
handbook of grounded theory (pp. 229-244). Los Angeles: Sage.
New Zealand Herald (2011). Rena: Thousands of tonnes of waste disposed. New Zealand Herald, 30
November 2011.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10757036http://newzealan
d.ifsa-butler.org/christchurchs-student-volunteer-army-getting-stuff-done/
New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (2009). Playing to our strengths: Creating value for Kiwi firms. A
report on how Kiwi culture can translate into creating successful and internationally
competitive business models. November 2009.
http://www.nzbcsd.org.nz/_attachments/playing-to-our-strengtths.pdf
Page 27