This page gives an overview of the type of data you can map and query on NABIS.

 

MAKE A MAP
NABIS makes available over 700 maps describing:
  • The distribution of New Zealand's marine species.
  • The New Zealand coastline, marine environment and bathymetry
  • New Zealand cities, towns, lakes and rivers
  • Marine reserves, Customary areas, and areas where fishing is restricted
  • And fisheries management areas

There are also tools that allow you to create new maps from fisheries commercial catch and effort data.

You can view or print any combination of map layers, at almost any zoom resolution that you wish.

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 Map of species distributions
MANY SPECIES AVAILABLE TO MAP
The biodiversity map layers within NABIS include:
  • 108 species of marine fish (annual, seasonal, juvenile and spawning distributions)
  • 40 species of seabirds (annual distributions and breeding colonies)
  • 61 species of marine invertebrates (annual and seasonal distributions)
  • 10 species of marine mammals (annual distributions and breeding colonies)
  • 12 species of marine plants (annual distributions)

You can change the colours used to represent each species distribution.

You can compare the distributions of two or more species, or compare the distribution of a species to mapped environmental variables.

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 Map of species distributions and breeding colonies
QUERY COMMERCIAL FISHING DATA
You can use the NABIS "Commercial catch" and "Commercial fishing effort" tools to dynamically create maps showing the commercial catch of marine fish in New Zealand. Commercial catch maps can be broken down by
  • 116 commercially caught species
  • 35 fishing methods
  • 18 years worth of data

Commercial effort can be broken down by

  • 4 ranges of vessel size
  • 35 fishing methods
  • 18 years worth of data

You can choose whether to have the labels associated with any given map layer turned on or off.

You can save your map so that you can later insert it into a document.

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 Map of commercial catch distribution
ENVIRONMENTAL DATA AVAILABLE
The environmental map layers within NABIS include:
  • Bathymetry map 100m - 10,000m.
  • Maps showing rivers, lakes, cities, towns, roads, residential areas, and major buildings
  • New Zealand place names

You can use NABIS to search for and locate any of over 50,000 named places within New Zealand.

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 Map of marine environment classification
TOPOGRAPHIC MAPS AVAILABLE
NABIS also holds the 50k (NZMS260) and Terralink 250k series New Zealand topography maps, and the New Zealand hydrographic chart series.
 
You can use NABIS to:
  • Measure the distance between two points.
  • This can be done as many times as needed on the map.
  • You can change the colour of the measurements made.

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 Topographic map
FISHING RESTRICTION AREAS AVAILABLE
NABIS makes available maps showing areas with fishing restrictions including:
  • Marine reserves
  • Mataitai reserves, Rohe moana, Taiapure and Temporary closures
  • Commercial fishing restrictions
  • Amateur fishing restrictions
  • Submarine cables and pipelines

Each map is accompanied by a comprehensive set of metadata which will help you determine whether the map is appropriate for your purposes.

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 Map of Kapiti Island Marine reserve
FISHERIES MANAGEMENT AREAS AVAILABLE
There is an extensive set of maps of the areas used to administer New Zealand's fisheries quota contained within NABIS. These maps include:
  • 95 maps of Quota Management Areas (QMA)
  • 4 maps of Fisheries Management Areas (FMA)
  • 7 maps of fisheries statistical areas
  • A map of New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
  • A map of New Zealand's Territorial Sea (TS)

You can use the NABIS "What's here?" tool to view the details associated with a given location on a given map (e.g. to find out when a particular area was certified).

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 Map of quota management areas