Ministry of Fisheries // Te Tautiaki i nga tini a Tangaroa // National Aquatic Biodiversity Information System

Help

Overview

Introduction
Map
Layer
Menu
Home
Layer Index
Customise
Contact Us
About NABIS
Select a Topic
Search
Proceed to Map

Introduction

The National Aquatic and Biodiversity Information System (NABIS) is an interactive web-based mapping tool. It uses Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to enable users to map and display New Zealand marine biodiversity information. With NABIS, users can map information about New Zealand's marine environment, species distributions and fisheries management.

The Home page of NABIS is the gateway into the NABIS system. To proceed from the homepage to a map you can either select a topic of interest from the topics panel on the left hand side of the home page, the species pictures along the top or use the proceed to map button. You can use the search tool at the bottom of the topics panel to find metadata, map layers, place names or content of interest. Or use the menu at the top right of the page to navigate to other content pages.

Map

Maps in NABIS are images of geographical information relevant to a particular area of interest. A map is comprised of several information layers arranged one on top of the other to produce the final image. A map is drawn using the geographical projection most relevant to the particular area of interest. Additional relevant layers can be added to a map to customise the final result.

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Layer

Layers are a spatial and visual representation of data rendered by a mapping tool. Each map layer represents a set of related data. The data for a layer consists of the geographical features in the layer, the information attached to each feature (attribute data) and details about the information management of the layer (Metadata).

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Home

To return to the Home Page from any page select 'Home' from the Menu bar or click on the NABIS logo on the top left of the page.

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Layer Index

Takes you to a list of all available species information layers. The layer index is comprised of tiles which show the species name, scientific name, Maori name (if there is one) and links to both the metadata/details and to add the layer to the map.

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Contact Us

This page provides contact details for reporting a system failure, requesting data, providing feedback and general enquiries. You can contact the NABIS team by e-mail, phone or post.

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About NABIS

The About NABIS heading contains a dropdown list with the following links:

More Info	Describes the information and functionality available on NABIS. Also some troubleshooting tips.
Help	Help for the pages you are viewing. You can access all help files and an online tutorial from the information panel on the right of the NABIS home page.
Accuracy	About the accuracy of content within NABIS including what influences it, how it is defined, how you can tell if a layer has issues and where to find out about the layers accuracy issues.
What's New?	Summary of recently added or updated information layers and functionality. These are also listed in the panel on the right of the NABIS homepage.
Related Links	Website links of interest. Including sites with further information relating to the New Zealand marine environment.
Privacy	Privacy information relevant to you and your use of NABIS.
Confidentiality	Some information on NABIS may be confidential or commercially sensitive. This outlines the processes that must be followed when viewing or releasing NABIS data in accordance with Ministry of Fisheries guidelines.
E-Govt Standards	Disclaimer statement regarding e-government requirements.

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Select a Topic

A list of topics with information available. These categories or topics are designed to provide a starting point for adding relevant information layers. Click on a topic to proceed to the map page.

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Search

This is an advanced search function which allows you to search for information layers (map datasets), place names, metadata and general website content.

It will search for any of the words that are entered into the search box or can search for exact phrases when a string of words is wrapped in quotation marks.

The rules applying to the search function are:

· You can enter one or more words or partial words (as long as at least 2 characters are entered into the search field)
for example: ‘blue’, 'tuna' or 'southern bluefin tuna'

· Words can be in any order if you are performing a simple keyword search
for example: 'bluefin southern tuna' will give the same result as 'southern bluefin tuna'

· An exact phrase can be searched by wrapping a string of words in quotation marks (" ") - this will mean that the order of the words is important for example: “southern bluefin tuna” will NOT give the same result as “tuna southern bluefin”

Validation Errors

If an error is detected in your search, a validation message appears with an explanation for the error. You can run a new search from the top of the page, return to the home page with either the menu link on the top right or nabis logo on the top left, or use the 'proceed to map' button.

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Proceed to map

If you decide not to select a topic, you can go straight to the default map of "New Zealand land and sea" by selecting the Proceed to Map button at the bottom of the information panel on the right of the NABIS home page. The proceed to map button is also located at the bottom right of all non-map pages this will take you back to the map you have created or to the default map of "New Zealand land and sea" if you have not yet created a map.

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Proceed To Map