Science Centres: Fisheries

About 1500 fishing companies, fish processing companies, and recreational fishers use NIWA’s unique sea surface temperature (SST) service to help them target the most promising fishing spots and monitor the climate, weather, and ocean currents.

Many users report the service is ‘critical’ to their operations, including a substantial number of Australian vessels. As for recreational fishers: ‘The potential for huge fuel savings is obvious; instead of driving out to sea to discover good water, you just consult your computer’, wrote Craig Worthington, in New Zealand Fishing News, May 2004.

The service provides:

• SST analyses for New Zealand and east coast Australia which can also be delivered to vessels at sea
• An SST climatology, and monthly-mean SST analyses
• Hourly satellite weather imagery from the Japan Meteorological Agency’s geostationary meteorological satellite
• Sat-View – a tool to order, visualise, and analyse NIWA satellite services data
• Pay-per-view and monthly subscription options

When you’re at sea, sat-phone costs can be a major issue. NIWA focuses on providing the most accurate sea surface temperature information, rather than tacking on other data which push up sat-phone traffic. That means we produce the highest resolution SST services in the region at a fraction of the cost of other providers.

You can find out more at www.niwa.co.nz/services/sat/