Scientific Results of the New Zealand Government Trawling Expedition, 1907

OBIS and SWP OBIS

In 1907 with the object of assisting and furthering the fishing industry the New Zealand Government organized and carried out an extensive series of experimental trawling investigations, the objects, as detailed in the official reports, being 'to ascertain what extent of trawling-grounds existed, what varieties of marketable fish were obtainable in the different localities; to prove whether the conditions necessary for carrying on successful trawling existed in certain localities within workable distance of the best markets, and, if so, to place the information on record for the guidance of those interested in the trawling industry; and generally to acquire information on the distribution of food-fishes, etc., in the sea surrounding these islands.'
The vessel used was the 'Nora Niven', built in Selby, and was constructed of
steel. She was 96 ft. long, the net register being 56 tons. In ordinary weather she could steam 8.5 knots an hour.
Though the expedition was fitted with several scientific appliances, such as sets of thermometers, sounding-apparatus, etc., all of which were regularly and systematically used, the provision for actual trawling was of the ordinary commercial type, designed only to arrest the larger or marketable fishes. No effort or arrangement was made to secure the smaller species or invertebrates, the presence or absence of
which may have an important bearing on the distribution of the
economic fishes. Occasionally, a smaller meshed cotton net was attached to sections of the trawl. When, however, this small net was used, the
increased number of species obtained was very marked.
The vessel left Wellington on the 5th June, 1907 for Stewart Island, and arrived in Auckland at the end of the expedition on August 26th 1907. Ninety-six hauls were made by the time Auckland was reached. The total weight of marketable fish brought to port by the trawler during the three-months cruise was 46,750 lb. 2,743 blue-cod (Parapercis colias) were taken at the Chatham Islands on hand-lines.

N/A

This dataset was downloaded from OBIS (https://obis.org/). The records for only marine mammals, seabirds, sea turtles and rays and sharks were extracted. Records with no longitude/latitude or no date (eventDate) were excluded.
OBIS dataset page:
https://obis.org/dataset/5ae7ac9f-0347-49d1-b022-7739dda78ccf
Data Provider's dataset page:
https://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/resource?r=nzgte

Overview

This section explains attributes included in the original dataset. OBIS-SEAMAP restricts the attributes available to the public to date/time, lat/lon and species names/counts only. Should you need other attributes described here, you are encouraged to contact the data provider.

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
All attributes are included in the downloadable file (CSV or ESRI File Geodatabase) for "Complete Set of Dataset".

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Internal ID
id	Record ID
dataset_id	Dataset ID
scientificname	Scientific name
vernacularname	Vernacular name
aphiaid	Aphia ID
taxonrank	taxononic rank
individualcount	Group size / individual count
eventdate	Event date (precision varies)
eventtime	Event time
decimallatitude	Latitude in decimal degrees
decimallongitude	Longitude in decimal degrees
coordinateprecision	Coordinate precision
catalognumber	Catalog number
collectioncode	Collection code
occurrencestatus	Occurrence status
basisofrecord	Basis of record (HumanObservation / MachineObservation)
modified	Date/time the record was modified
node_id	Node ID
occurrenceid	Occurrence ID
occurrenceremarks	Occurrence remarks
eventid	Event ID
institutioncode	Institution code
lifestage	Life stage
sex	Gender of the animal if known
species	Species by provider
datasetid	Dataset ID by provider
country	Country
locality	Location of ocean
waterbody	Details of ocean
dropped	Flag indicating the record was dropped (always false)
absence	Flag indicating the record represents the absence of the species (always false)
marine	Flag indicating the record is for marine life (always true)