Dear Ministry of Defence.

In a recent report commissioned by the Ministry for the Environment entitled Information stocktakes of fifty-five environmental attributes across air, soil, terrestrial, freshwater, estuaries and coastal waters domains (https://environment.govt.nz/publications...) , it is noted in section 9 subsection 10 part B.1 (Underwater noise / ocean sound) that "the Royal New Zealand navy has an array of hydrophones off Great Barrier Island, starting in 1961" and that it "could represent an important long-term monitoring database"

It is clear that hydrophone data is invaluable for marine research.

I have the following questions.

1) How extensive is New Zealands hydrophone monitoring system?
2) Is the data recorded, especially historical data stretching back to the implementation of these systems?
3) Has the Navy or the MOD conducted any assessments as to the feasibility of publishing this data or making it available to vetted researchers within New Zealand?
4) What is the MOD's position on making this data public or accessible to researchers?

Yours faithfully,
RC