Reef Life Survey (RLS) around New Zealand region: Reef fish dataset

Graham Edgar1, Kevin Mackay2, Rick Stuart-Smith3

1 Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS), Private Bag 14-901, Hobart, Australia; 2 NIWA, Private Bag 14-901, 6241, Wellington, New Zealand; 3 Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS), Hobart, Australia

Corresponding author(s): Graham Edgar, Kevin Mackay

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

Edgar, GJ and Stuart-Smith, RD (2017): Reef Life Survey (RLS): Reef Fish. v1.0. Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node. Dataset/Occurrence. https://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/resource?r=reef_life_fish&v=1.0

Abstract

Reef Life Survey is designed to develop and resource a network of skilled recreational divers for rapid and cost-effective assessment of the state of the inshore marine environment at the global scale. The project uses standardised underwater visual census methods employed by trained SCUBA divers to survey fish and invertebrate species and to record habitat type using photo quadrats - this dataset refers to the reef fish survey component only.
The dataset generated by recreational divers provides a national framework for monitoring the state of the inshore environment and the identification of those threats and locations of greatest conservation concern. The project also increases awareness and interest by the recreational diving community in marine issues, and enhanced scientific capacity of personnel in regional areas.
This dataset is a subset of the whole collection for the New Zealand and south western Pacific region only. For the full record, visit http://reeflifesurvey.com/reef-life-survey/survey-data/

Keywords: Occurrence, Observation

General description

Additional information: marine, harvested by iOBIS

Data published through GBIF: https://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/resource?r=reef_life_fish

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: New Zealand and south western Pacific Ocean
Coordinates: 60°0'0''S and 0°0'0''N Latitude; 105°0'0''W and 160°0'0''E Longitude 

Methods

Method step description: Data entry is completed via specially-designed Excel templates which contain species and site lists for specific regions.
Study extent description: New Zealand and south western Pacific Ocean (taken from a global dataset)
Sampling description: RLS applies globally standardised visual census methods used and developed in over 20 years of shallow reef biodiversity research. These involve divers recording fish and invertebrate species seen along underwater transects using underwater paper and a pencil. Although not high-tech, when undertaken by experienced surveyors, these allow coverage of species not able to be recorded by other methods, and are cost and time-effective. Photographs are also taken of the coral or seaweed cover on each survey. The complete methods cover the majority of plants and animals &gt; 2.5 cm which make up the life of rocky and coral reefs.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Reef Life Survey (RLS) around New Zealand region: Reef fish dataset
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: https://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/archive.do?r=reef_life_fish
Publication date of data: 2018-08-09
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2017-05-24
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
Edgar, GJ and Stuart-Smith, RD, “Systematic global assessment of reef fish communities by the Reef Life Survey program”, Scientific Data, 1 Article 140007. doi:10.1038/sdata.2014.7 ISSN 2052-4463 (2014)