Data collection systems

The Ministry of Fisheries strategic plan identifies that managing fisheries and delivering core fisheries services requires the gathering and dissemination of large amounts of information. Much of this information quantifies the fish that is caught and follows the flow of fish product from the fisher to the retailer.

The following data collection systems provide information that maybe useful to scientists and researchers.

• Catch Effort - Stores detailed information on the catch of New Zealand's commercial fishers.  Follow this link for an overview of the properties of Catch Effort information. This library describes Catch Effort information but some possible alternatives are briefly described below. 
• LFRR - Stores information provided to FishServe on Licensed Fish Receiver Returns (LFRR). Identifies for each LFR, and for each fisher that landed to that LFR, the amount of each fish species landed in a month. Does not record the area where the fish came from.
• MHR - Stores information provided to FishServe on Monthly Harvest Returns (MHR) by holders of Annual Catch Entitlement. Identifies fish harvest by fisher, by month, by Quota Management Area. Lists the vessels that were used for the harvest during that month. Covers data from 1 October 2001. Before this date the QMR system was in use (12 December 1986 to 30 September 2001).
• Observer Catch Effort - Stores detailed catch information collected by Ministry of Fisheries observers during their placement on commercial fishing vessels. For most fisheries only a small percentage of vessels have observer coverage but observers generally collect more accurate information than is supplied by commercial sources. 
• Research project databases - A collection of approximately 30 formal databases storing a wide variety of fisheries information collected as a result of fisheries research projects. Examples include trawl surveys, acoustic surveys, dive and beach transect surveys, and biological data on fish (length frequency, ageing etc.).
• Customary fishing - Stores information provided by kaitiaki (individuals responsible for managing customary non-commercial fishing). Identifies aggregated customary catch for each quarter, for each fishstock, for each kaitiaki. Currently only exists on paper forms and not in a database.
• Industry reported non-fish bycatch data collection - Stores the information provided by commercial fishers on the catch of sea birds, mammals, etc.
• National Aquatic and Biodiversity Information System (NABIS) - www.NABIS.govt.nz (online from December 2003) - NABIS is a website application which uses GIS (geographic information system) tools to provide spatial information about New Zealand's marine biodiversity.

To help with comparing Catch Effort, LFRR, MHR and QMR data, a  Summary table is provided.