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.