Description
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 at 8.5 knots.
The total covered during this cruise was 3,835 miles, the distance steamed being 3,123 miles, and the distance the trawl net was towed 712. One hundred and forty-six hauls of the trawl net were made. The depth of water in which the hauls of the trawl-net were made varied from 4 to 105 fathoms (7 to 191 m); and the time occupied by each haul varied from threequarters of an hour to two hours and a half. The total quantity of fish brought in and delivered to the owners of the 'Nora Niven' was 48,625lb (22,102kg).
Following the success of the first leg of the expedition (see https://obis.org/dataset/5ae7ac9f-0347-49d1-b022-7739dda78ccf), the 'Nora Niven' was chartered for a further three months for the purpose of prospecting the grounds to the west of Cook Strait, Tasman and Golden Bays, down the west coast of the South Island to Hokitika, the west coast of the North Island, and part of the east coast from the Hauraki Gulf to the North Cape.
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.
Data Records
The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 146 records.
1 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Ayson L F (2025). New Zealand Government Trawling Expedition, 1907 (leg 2). Version 1.1. Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node. Samplingevent dataset. https://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/resource?r=nz_experimental_trawl_1907b&v=1.1
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node. To the extent possible under law, the publisher has waived all rights to these data and has dedicated them to the Public Domain (CC0 1.0). Users may copy, modify, distribute and use the work, including for commercial purposes, without restriction.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: b4f6b3aa-91a3-4d59-ba20-200f17682350. Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Ocean Biodiversity Information System.
Keywords
Samplingevent; Observation
Contacts
- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator
- Point Of Contact
Geographic Coverage
New Zealand coastal waters.
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [-42.7, 170.817], North East [-34.549, 175.246] |
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Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 1907-09-09 / 1907-12-03 |
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Bibliographic Citations
- Ayson, L.F. 1907: Interim report on experimental trawling (1907, New Zealand). Government Printer, Wellington. 1908. 26 pp
Additional Metadata
marine, harvested by iOBIS
| Alternative Identifiers | b4f6b3aa-91a3-4d59-ba20-200f17682350 |
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| https://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/resource?r=nz_experimental_trawl_1907b |