Survey data in a Microsoft Excel™ spreadsheet used to produce the report "A baseline survey of the indigenous bird values of the Wellington region coastline". See page 6 of this report https://www.gw.govt.nz/assets/Our-Environment/Environmental-monitoring/Environmental-Reporting/Wellington-coastal-bird-survey-report-July-2019-v4.pdf

I would like this survey data to be kept secure and publicly available. This survey is recommended to be repeated every 5 years. If the survey data for each subsequent survey is kept in a public repository data analysis can be undertaken by member of the public comparing the data and indicating the decline or recovery of species at specific sites in the Wellington region. Without the raw data being kept in a public, easily accessible and secure place, this type of analysis would be challenging to be undertaken by interested parties.

At present those data are difficult to access easily. A member of the public would have to write in to the Greater Wellington Regional Council and request it. Such datasets may not be easily findable in 5 years time. It was only as a result of reading the report based on those data that I realised it might be possible to access the data the report was based on. By having those data available on data.govt.nz it would be more discoverable to everyone. I would also be able to use the link generated by data.govt.nz to cite the data.