MARLIN provides five options for the investigation of the Ministry's scientific data holdings

  1. A written overview of the Ministry for Primary Industries scientific data holdings, with the emphasis placed on describing data holdings that are not documented in more detail elsewhere within MARLIN.
  2. A searchable catalogue of the data sets, originating from Ministry contracted scientific research projects, which are stored in Ministry data repositories. The Ministry contracts over 100 scientific research projects each year and many of these projects generate more than one type of data. A catalogue of over 1000 such datasets is stored in MARLIN, and the records of these datasets are easily searchable by data type, species code or project code. Note that some of these data sets are "groomed" versions of original data also held elsewhere (for example, Catch and Effort or Observer data). New data sets are acquired almost every week and the information within MARLIN is updated within 2 weeks of acquisition. There are two options for searching this catalogue:
    1. A basic search option that allows you to search the catalogue by species code, data type, research project, data type, data set id, region code, or project/objective. The basic search option should be adequate to meet most peoples needs; and
    2. An advanced search option that allows you to search (using and/or operators) by a combination of up to three criteria.
  3. A searchable catalogue of ageing material, of which most are otoliths (fish ear bones) that have been collected by both Ministry observers and by Ministry research projects. These records are searchable by species code, area and date. New ageing material, mostly otoliths are acquired almost every week and the information within MARLIN is updated within 1 week of the details of the ageing material being recorded in the Ministry's age database (note though that several months may elapse between ageing material being collected and the details of that material to be entered into the age database).
  4. A searchable catalogue of the length frequency (LF) samples that have been collected by Ministry observers & by Ministry research projects, where that data is stored on the trawl database. These records are searchable by species code, area and date. New length frequency samples are acquired almost every week and the information within MARLIN is updated within 1 week of the details of the sample being recorded in the Ministry's cod & trawl databases (note though that several months may elapse between an LF sample being collected and the details of that LF to be entered into the these databases).
  5. A searchable catalogue of the conversion factor (CF) samples that have been collected by Ministry observers. These records are searchable by species code, processed state, area and date. New CF samples are acquired almost every week and the information within MARLIN is updated within 1 week of the details of the CF being recorded in the x_conversion_factor table in the Ministry's Observer database called cod (note though that several months may elapse between a CF being collected and the details of that CF to be entered into the cod database)