Marine Data

The location and extent of Marine reserves (type 1 marine protected areas) in the territorial sea.

New Zealand’s four million km2 marine environment is diverse, with a range of coastal habitats and offshore seabed environments. There are also many marine species unique to New Zealand. Marine protected areas conserve or manage some of these unique habitats and species, while a range of other tools also provide marine protection. We report on the area covered by these tools as an indirect measure to understand the state of the marine environment.
Marine reserves lie within our territorial sea (12 nautical mile limit) and offer the highest level of marine protection in New Zealand waters. No marine habitat or life form, such as seaweed or fish, may be removed from, or disturbed in, these places.

The location and extent of mineral and coal permits in the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone.

The location of petroleum wells in the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone.

New Zealand’s four million km2 marine environment is diverse, with a range of coastal habitats and offshore seabed environments. There are also many marine species unique to New Zealand. Marine protected areas conserve or manage some of these unique habitats and species, while a range of other tools also provide marine protection. We report on the area covered by these tools as an indirect measure to understand the state of the marine environment.
Benthic protection areas (protected seabed areas) are one of the marine protection tools used. They are designated areas in the exclusive economic zone, which extends from the 12 nautical mile seaward limit of the territorial sea to the 200 nautical mile limit. Bethnic protection areas protect seabed habitats through the prohibition of bottom trawling and dredging. There are some areas where seamount closures overlap with benthic protection areas. In these cases the seamount closure restrictions apply.
Note that the thumbnail preview of this spatial data does not reflect the data underlying it. Please see the methodology for a more reflective preview.

The location and extent of Type 2 marine protected areas in the territorial sea.

The location and extent of mineral and coal reserved areas in the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone.

"The average concentration of chlorophyll-a (chl-a) in phytoplankton for 2014.
Concentrations of chl-a in phytoplankton are used to assess primary productivity in our oceans. Phytoplankton are primary producers of biomass and form the basis of the oceans’ food chains."

Extreme wave indexes estimate the occurrence of extreme wave events in coastal and oceanic waters. Extreme wave indexes estimate the number of times a significant wave height exceeds one of three threshold values for at least 12 hours in 24 marine regions. The three wave-height thresholds are four metres, six metres, and eight metres.
This indicator estimates the exceedances of a wave-height threshold for each year from 2008 to 2015 in coastal regions.
Significant wave height is a measure of the ‘typical’ wave height in a place over a time period. It is four times the standard deviation of the water surface if, for example, you were to measure water moving up and down a jetty piling for an hour. The largest individual wave will typically have a height around twice the significant wave height.
We use three wave-height thresholds because of the regional variation in extreme wave events. In general, the north experiences less exposure to consistently strong winds, and the waves generated by them, than the south. Four-metre tall waves are considered extreme in the northern-most parts of New Zealand but are more common in the south. For the southern-most parts of New Zealand, eight-metre waves better represent extreme wave events.
This dataset relates to the number of extreme wave events exceeding the eight metre threshold in coastal regions.

New Zealand’s four million km2 marine environment is diverse, with a range of coastal habitats and offshore seabed environments. There are also many marine species unique to New Zealand. Marine protected areas (MPAs) conserve or manage some of these unique habitats and species, while a range of other tools also provide marine protection. We report on the area covered by these tools as an indirect measure to understand the state of the marine environment.
Type 2 MPAs have lower levels of protection than marine reserves. For example, they may allow fishing but restrict seabed trawling.