1 Database documentation series

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) currently carries out the role of Data Manager and Custodian for the fisheries research data owned by the Ministry of Fisheries (Mfish).

The Ministry of Fisheries data set incorporates historic research data, data collected more recently by MAF Fisheries prior to the split in 1995 of Policy to the Ministry of Fisheries and research to NIWA, and currently data collected by NIWA and other agencies for the Ministry of Fisheries.

This document provides an introduction to the plankton survey database plankton, and is a part of the database documentation series produced by NIWA.

All documents in this series include an introduction to the database design, a description of the main data structures accompanied by an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD), and a listing of all the main tables. The ERD graphically shows how all the tables fit in together, and their relationships to other databases.

This document is intended as a guide for users and administrators of the plankton database.