Seafriends - links and search



Search this site Find the pages of your interest quickly and conveniently.
Search NZ Search New Zealand using the efficient NZ explorer search engine and others
Search the Net Search the world-wide web using a dozen search engines and references
World links to free scientific articles, a rare breed
Sites with good books about the environment
Conservation NZ Links to environmental sites in New Zealand
Links to marine conservation sites in NewZealand
World links Links to marine conservation organisations and information, world-wide
NZ Government Links to Government Departments in New Zealand and scientific research
University Links to University Departments and Tertiary Study Centres in NZ, and academic associations
Fishing Amateur and commercial fishing organisations and clubs in NZ
Diving Web sites interesting for diving in New Zealand
Education Links to important educational sites and those with marine content
Interesting sites Interesting sites relating to the sea, world-wide
 

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Free scientific information

When authors of scientific papers submit their manuscripts for publication in scientific journals, they are frequently asked to sign a copyright-transfer agreement to the publishers of the journal. After such a transfer, the authors may retain little freedom to use their own papers. For example, some copyright agreements forbid authors to make their works available on a web page: you might be reading something more interesting than this, now!  (Free science organisation)
Scientific information in the form of articles, is jealously guarded by the various scientific publishers. Downloads on the net can cost from US$1 to US$60. However, valuable and free information can also be obtained from the following organisations:
 
Open Access/FOS
The fight for Open Access to scientific information has a long history, with fighters like Peter Suben. Follow the timeline to see which journals and archives have joined and which countries have passed supportive legislation. Go to their links page for open access publications. The movement is gaining momentum!
Scientific Journals
International
Finally an impressive beginning with free web-published scientific articles, in more than 100 peer-reviewed open-access journals for all disciplines. Fast turnaround, fair peer review, and a chance to publish truly new ideas that are shunned by the mainstream journals. Watch this space!
Google scholarly 
search
An excellent search engine for scientific articles, emphasising those freely available. Search by keywords in title or anywhere in the artidle, by author, journal and date limits.
scirus
Elsevier's impressive science search engine, named after the Greek visionary Scirus, scans millions of knowledge sites and journals and provides relevant results which are not always free of charge. Elsevier sells articles through ScienceDirect for US$30 each.
plos
The Public Library of Science is a non-profit organization of scientists committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature freely accessible to scientists and to the public around the world, for the benefit of scientific progress, education and the public good. No information yet but remarkable progress with the HR2612 Public Access to Science Act (PASA).
OAI
The Open Archives Initiative encourages scientists to archive their own publications and to network these globally using a standardised archiving method and free software to do so. Their first search engine gives access to over 270,000 scientific articles. This promises to become a great resource.
pubmed
PubMed Central is an initiative of the National Institute of Health to make medical publications freely available, at least their abstracts. Environmental searches also turn up good results. Their LinkOut option on search results refers to articles and information freely available on the Net. First search, then select LinkOut articles on the tool bar. 
BioMedSearch links to and searches for free publications in the bio-medical field.
science
Search the AAAS publications like Science, Science Express from 1995 on. Requires free registration but delivers few free results.
pnas
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. Use their search page or browse by volume. Returns highly relevant results with free PDF documents. Only their most recent 6-8 volumes are not free of charge.
ESA journals
Ecological Society of America journals are available free of charge: Ecological Applications, Frontiers in Ecology and Environment, Bulletin of the ESA, Ecology, Ecological Monographs. PDF files. Oops, very little is actually free.
osti
US Department of Energy's (DOE) Science and Technology Information and Resources: gray literature, preprints, and journal literature. Scientific and technical information in physics and other disciplines of concern to the DOE.
NSGL
The URI Coastal Data and Information Center (CDIC) and the National Sea Grant Library (NSGL) digital libraries include: Coastal hazards and hrmful algae. Free PDF documents.
sciam
Scientific American magazine hosts a wealth of free general information, accessible by search.
springer
Springer Verlag publishes many books, scientific magazines and online publications. It supports Online First, which means that publications do not need to wait for magazine space. Use their SpringerLink search engine to find free abstracts of most journals. The complete texts need registration and are not free.
mimas
Manchester Information & Associated Services is a good starting point into many worldwide resources of information, using their search engine. This link also leads to information that is not free.
dois
DoIS (Documents in Information Science) is a database of articles and conference proceedings published in electronic format in the area of Library and Information Science. At the moment it holds about 8643 articles and 1987 papers, 4889 of them are downloable from the site. Use their search engine.
google
The Google search engine has classified links to open access scientific sources of information: 
archives: research laboratories, university theses, public organisations. 
journals: some 30 journals providing free access to their articles. (Most unrelated to the environment. Recently removed)
the scientist
The Scientist is a magazine containing general scientific information, particullarly scientific news in biology and medicine. Use their search engine to find articles. Free registration required.
freescience
The campaign for free scientific information fights to make all scientific information free to the public. Visit their links page for a list of free information and magazines. Free text books in html. Not much there yet.
sosig
The Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG) is a freely available Internet service which aims to provide a trusted source of selected, high quality Internet information for students, academics, researchers and practitioners in the social sciences, business and law. It is part of the UK Resource Discovery Network. Their search engine searches their list of valuable science links.
gcrio
The US Global Change Resources Information Office collects resources about changes happening globally, from climate to environment. Use their search engine to find relevant documents, often from scientific magazines, of which many in PDF. It also covers the ASPEN global change institute.
dmoz
The Open Directory Project (ODP) is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors. It links to information pages elsewhere on the Web, and is searchable, returning relevant results.
DLC
The Digital Library of the Commons (DLC) is a gateway to the international literature on the commons and contains author-submitted papers, full-text conference papers, dissertations, working papers, pre-prints, and reports. Aquaculture, fisheries, agriculture, grazing, resources etc; the problem areas of the world. An OAI initiative. Search.
US edu
The US Dept of Education maintains an extensive link page to free educational science information, complete with search engine.
NSDL
National Science Digital Library:  Educational resources for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, funded by the National Science Foundation. Messy, for schools.
wikipedia
The world's free encyclopedia with over one million entries.
free internet
encyclopedia
This is an encyclopedia composed of information available on the Internet. There are two main divisions: the MacroReference contains references to large areas of knowledge, FAQs where available, and pointers to relevant areas of the MicroReference, which contains short bits of information. It is maintained by one person.
NationMaster
An amazing collection of statistics, well organised and browsable: environment, energy, social, economy, and many more subjects, finely graded by country. And entirely FREE!

Read the article Who Should Own Scientific Papers? Is a Public Library of Science (PLoS) feasible?


Sites with good books

(Also consult the Seafriends Library and new acquisitions, with over 900 good books, you can hire. Why buy if you can hire?)
Amazon
Amazon is a gigantic bookshop with millions of titles, including scientific and environmental work. Use it to find any book.
World Watch
The World Watch institute publishes well researched information in the form of small and affordable books (papers), not wasting your time. Many publications can be bought in .PDF format.
National Academy Press
An enormous collection of good books which you can read entirely on the Net, or purchase
CSIRO
The Australian government Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation has many very good and affordable books.
Royal Society of NZ
Abstracts of Journals 1994 onward, particularly the New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research. Unfortunately articles are not free.
Island Press
Island Press is a nonprofit organisation, publishing books on the most advanced thinking on the conservation of our natural resources: books about soil, land, water, forests, wildlife and hazardous and toxic wastes.
Common Courage
Founded in 1991 and publishing books for social justice on race, gender, feminism, economics, ecology, labor and U.S. domestic and foreign policy, the Press seeks to provide an analysis of problems from a range of perspectives, and to aid activists and others in developing strategies for action.

Links to conservation organisations in New Zealand


Forest&Bird
The Royal New Zealand Forest and Bird Protection Society has had a superb record of many years of protection of the environment
Project Jonah
Promotes the education and understanding of marine mammals, while encouraging scientific research in this area. They also take direct action to protect and save them.
Conservation 
Volunteers
NZCTV New Zealand Trust for Conservation Volunteers brings volunteers and projects together. If you wish to offer your time for conservation, visit this site first.
Global 
Volunteers
The Global Volunteer Network, a non profit organisation based in Wellington, New Zealand places volunteers in community projects in China, Ecuador, Ghana, Nepal, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Thailand, and Uganda.
Naturespace The NZ Nature Conservation Space: dedicated to our natural heritage and the people who care about it. Has a good references to all conservation law in NZ
Adopt-a-whale
Whale and dolphin adoption project. Whales & dolphins are dying to be saved. A non-profit organisation dedicated to raising funds for marine mammal research, education and conservation of the marine environment.
 
EDS
Environmental Defence Society: a New Zealand based environmental advocacy organisation made up of a voluntary group of professionals, and funded through financial memberships. The group aims to promote sustainable environmental management through the promotion of policy development, advocacy and precedents gained through their involvement with selected planning cases
ERMANZ
Environmental Risk Management Authority: a quasi-legal body with members appointed by the Minister for the Environment, is responsible for the enforcement of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996, and oversees the issuing of approval and licenses under the Act.
WWF NZ
The New Zealand branch of World Wide Fund of nature.

Links to marine conservation organisations in New Zealand


Department of Conservation
The Department of Conservation is a government department tasked with protecting biodiversity on land and in the sea. unfortunately it has shown little knowledge of the sea, as also witnessed by its web site and our many rebuttals. No link to Seafriends.
NABIS
National Aquatic Biodiversity Information System, a map-based (GIS) database of environmental and fisheries information, made available through the Web. Extensive and growing very slowly. Initially mainly fisheries-based.
Option4
Option4 fights for the birthright of New Zealanders to the fish in their seas. In doing so it had to sue the New Zealand government and won in court. Option4 continues its fight for more fish in healthy seas, again an area mismanaged by the NZ government. Why do the people need to sue their governments? Links to Seafriends.
marine-reserves.nz
Personal web site of Dr Bill Ballantine, protagonist for marine reserves in New Zealand and world-wide. Dr Ballantine is seen as the 'father of marine reserves', however his ideas are forty years old, do not acknowledge marine degradation and his web site is stagnant. No link to Seafriends.
treasures of the sea
Funded by WWF NZ and written by Dr Alison MacDiarmid (NIWA), this web site gives good general information about the state of biodiversity of New Zealand seas, as it provides a general description, status, key locations, summary of threats, typical habitats, state of information, significance for Maori, key references for each major taxonomic group. Not written for schools. Poor images. No link to Seafriends.
marineNZ
Written by Vince Kerr and supported by WWF and DOC: "MarineNZ.org will become a virtual marine online world, full of stunning underwater photography, videography and leading marine biology reports and presentations. There are tools for students, teachers and all those interested in our marine environment. There’s also information on our streams and rivers, and how they interact with our beaches and oceans." It provides scientific reports but poor quality photos, video and information. No link to Seafriends.
experiencing marine reserves
An up-beat web site written by Samara Nicholas-Sutherland and funded by the Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust (Vince Kerr/DOC), advocating more marine reserves. EMR takes school children for snorkelling inside and outside marine reserves, pointing out more snapper and fewer sea urchins. No link to Seafriends.

Links to marine conservation organisations & information,world-wide


world ocean observatory A place of exchange for ocean information, education and public discourse about the future of the ocean and its implication for human survival. Incorporating THE PHYSICAL OCEAN, the UN Atlas of the Oceans and other useful sites; THE WORLD OCEAN DIRECTORY, an indexed network of organizations worldwide with ocean interests; THE WORLD OCEAN FORUM, a digest of ocean conferences, publications, exhibits, news and media; and THE WORLD OCEAN CLASSROOM, an inventory of curriculum, ocean exemplars and educational resources for global distribution. 
Conservation Links
Patricia Michaels has been inspired by the United Nation's International Year of the Ocean, bringing a vast number of environmental links together. Visit also her articles on fisheries and marine pollution.
FishBase
Very large database of fish species (~50,000) and extensive search facility.
EOL
Encyclopedia of Life: a searchable database of species details. Growing slowly.
WoRMS
 World Register of Marine Species of www.marinespecies.org attempts to assemble a complete world biodiversity database. Growing slowly.
CALM
The Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) is the State Government agency responsible for the management of Western Australia's national parks, conservation parks, marine parks, State forests and timber reserves, nature reserves, marine nature reserves, and all associated forest produce, native plants and animals. We are also responsible for conserving native plants and animals throughout the State and managing their sustainable use.
I O C
UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission promotes international oceanographic research and methods for oceanic and atmospheric forecasting. It fosters education and training programmes for systematic observations of the global ocean, the results of which will be made widely available. It has declared 1998 the International Year of the Ocean
United Nations
Various departments within the United Nations organisation: 
Bookshop: books on global issues. 
Databases: various 
FAO: Food & Agriculture Organisation; sustainability in agriculture, fisheries, economics, etc. 
Global Compact: human rights, labour, civil society, environment. 
Law of the sea: Oceans and Law of the Sea homepage. UNCLOS. Seabed, ocean resources. 
Maps: world, regional and national maps in .PDF format. 
Photo library: over 200,000 photographs dating back to the mid-1940s 
Publications: Books, periodicals, on-line publications, databases. 
Statistics: National and international statistics. 
FAO stats: Food & Agricultural statistics; fisheries, agriculture, nutrition, forestry.
Whale links Project Jonah's cetacean links world-wide.
AOC The mission of American Oceans Campaign is to safeguard the vitality of the oceans and our coastal waters. AOC is committed to scientific information in advocating for sound public policy. We are equally committed to developing partnerships with all entities interested in protecting the environment. AOC seeks to ensure healthy sources of food and coastal recreation as well as protect the ocean's grandeur for future generations. Read their fish briefs.
Austalian museum
A very extensive and informational site about many topics: "Our mission is to increase understanding of, and influence public debate on, the natural environment, human societies and human interaction with the environment."
Conservation Ecology
Conservation Ecology is an electronic, peer-reviewed, scientific journal devoted to the rapid dissemination of current research. Manuscript submission, peer review, and publication are all handled on the Internet. Content of the journal ranges from the applied to the theoretical. Topics covered include the ecological bases for:  the conservation of ecosystems, landscapes, species, populations, and genetic diversity; the restoration of ecosystems and habitats; and the management of resources. 
CMC
We envision a world of healthy, protected oceans with wild and flourishing ecosystems, free of pollution and filled with diverse and abundant wildlife. The mission of the Center for Marine Conservation is to protect ocean ecosystems and conserve the global abundance and diversity of marine wildlife.
NOAA
National Ocanic and Atmospheric Administration (USA) describes and predicts changes in the Earth's environment, and aims to conserve and wisely manage the Nation's coastal and marine resources. Very good information about global warming, ocean and earth phenomena.
Earth Observatory
An excellent site with uptodate world maps from various earth orbiting satellites. Resource information on global issues. Atmosphere, oceans, energy, life, ozone, temerature, radiation and more. Also visit visibleearth.nasa.gov for various satellite images.
Lycos ENS
Lycos Environmental News Service. The latest news and a search engine for past news items.
EEA
Europe's gateway to environmental information maintained by the European Environment Agency and EIONETpartners
Environmental Expert
The world's leading Business-to-Business marketplace for environmental companies & professionals
World Resources Institute
Because people are inspired by ideas, empowered by knowledge, and moved to change by greater understanding, WRI provides -- and helps other institutions provide -- information and practical proposals for policy and institutional change that will foster environmentally sound, socially equitable development. Extensive site.
Worldwatch Institute
An organization committed to an interdisciplinary analysis of global environmental issues, one that could help raise global awareness of these issues. See also the Earth Policy Institute, which provides a vision of what an eco-economy will look like, how it will work, and how to 
build it. By definition, an eco-economy is designed to mesh with Earth's ecosystem instead of disrupting and destroying it
Solutions-site
Case studies of solutions to environmental problems: to provide a forum for the presentation of solutions to vital concerns in the areas of health, population, development and the environment.  "Too often a good idea never reaches others."
under the sea
Many links to good information about the sea.(breezes.com)

Links to Government Departments in New Zealand
 
The Department of Conservation is the main body responsible for marine conservation, which is but a small part of its very extensive responsibilities.
The Minister for the Environment looks at broader issues such as water quality and global warming and administers the Resource Management Act
The Ministry of Fisheries is in control of all commercial fishing. Has own site search.
Fund For Ressearch and Technology funds most scientific research in NZ
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd (NIWA) conducts high quality research in atmospheric, marine, freshwater and coastal systems. NIWA is a private company and not a government department and is not interested much in the Public Good and free information.
Min of Research & Technology The Ministry of Research, Science and Technology, established in 1989 as part of the structural reform of the Government’s interest in research, science and technology, provides science and technology policy advice and related services to the Government.
Once the government department of statistics, is now a private company publishing the Statistical Yearbook while providing the government with information. However, for the public nothing comes free. A shame.
Maritime Safety Authority, regulating the safety in navigation. Marine Notices.
 


University departments and tertiary institutions


Auckland University
Extensive web site of the University of Auckland. Environmental law dept. School of Environmental and Marine Sciences (SEMS). 
Massey University
Massey University and School of Resources and Environmental Planning.
Waikato University
University of Waikato and Centre for Environmental and Resource Studies.
Canterbury University Canterbury University
Otago University
Otago University and department of Environmental Science.
Royal Society
The Royal society of New Zealand has the statutory responsibility to foster a culture supportive of science and technology in New Zealand and to initiate appropriate international links. It has over 50 member societies in all categories of science. A library of publications is under construction.
Marine Sciences
The New Zealand Marine Sciences Society (NZMSS) promotes all aspects of marine science and wise management of our seas. It organises an annual conference.

Commercial and amateur fishing organisations


Seafood Industry
The Seafood Industry Council has an informative web site with good statistics

Links for divers


Dive Log NZ
The Dive Log New Zealand is this country's main dive publication. It appears six times per year.You'll find many useful links here to charter boats, dive shops, diving overseas and more. 
NZUA
The NZ Underwater Association is the national body for amateur divers
Diving in NZ
Links to the diving industry
Fiordland
Fiordland Under Water, an informative site by Padi Ryan. Many nice photographs of organisms.
PADI Professional Association of Diving Instructors in New Zealand. Or visit PADI International.
Dogsbreath divers
Links to many dive sites in the world.

Links to educational sites


Copeland-Wilson
CWA-Copeland Wilson and Associates have a huge catalogue of educational resources
National Library
National Library of New Zealand. Its section for schools has many works relevant to the marine environment. 
Online Curriculum NZ Online curriculum resource, a collection of links created by the Telecom Educational Foundation
Wet Paper Publishing
Publishes affordable Marine Studies textbooks and curriculum materials for schools. Supports teachers by networking them.
MESA
The Marine Education Society of Australasia acts on behalf of its members to promote appreciation and understanding of the marine environment through excellence in education, MESA provides a national forum and advocacy on marine education and encourages international initiatives in this field.
Greenpeace Int'l
Greenpeace is an independent, campaigning organisation which uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and to force the solutions which are essential to a green and peaceful future.
Learnz
Interested in integrating the Internet and communication technologies into your own classroom teaching? Want something that is well organised and ready-to-go? You've come to the right place! Antarctica, Tongariro, Fiordland and more.
Encyclopedia of atmosphere
The Encyclopedia is a one-stop source of information, for younger and older users alike, on a range of atmopsheric issues, including air quality, acid rain, global warming and ozone depletion. http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/aric/eae/index.html
Biozone links
Biozone specialises in biological education for schools. It sells excellent learning media, and it has a comprehensive page with over 500 links to biologically educative web sites worldwide, classified by interest type.


Interesting sites world-wide, relating to the sea
 
Zubi's links
Visit Zubi's place www.starfish.ch if you are particularly interested in frogfishes/ anglerfish biology and pictures. Her links page is a good starting point for a great variety of information about marine organisms.
Lost treasures Ocean research Group Shipwrecks and lost Treasures of the Seven Seas.Interesting for many. Adventurous.
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