Three stratified random trawl surveys completed between 2018–2020 off the west coast North Island using RV Kaharoa provided a comparison with historical surveys last carried out in 1999. The time series reveals a substantial increase in snapper biomass has occurred since 1999, but a decline in pre-recruit red gurnard was apparent. John dory biomass also trended downwards. CVs for these species were all within target. For tarakihi, CVs were higher and trends were less clear.

This project estimated the at-sea distribution within the New Zealand EEZ of 11 seabird taxa considered to be most at risk from captures by New Zealand commercial fishing. Predictive habitat models fitted to spatial information were used to predict at-sea distribution of each taxon for each month. Seabird tracking data were used to derive monthly proportions of birds within the EEZ, which were nearly always lower than those assumed by the most recent multispecies seabird spatial risk assessment.

Data on the overlap and possible interaction between hoiho (yellow-eyed penguin, Megadyptes antipodes) distribution and commercial fishing activities in the South Island were compiled. Data included: species landings, and catch and effort data for the 2008–09 to 2019–20 fishing years; east coast South Island winter trawl survey data from 1991 to 2021; observer data for the fishing years 1999–2000 to 2020–21.

Swordfish and tunas caught by tuna longline vessels are processed at sea, preventing the measurement of lengths in port samples, but individual processed weights of the catch are kept by fish processors that export, in a relatively whole state, these fish. Processed weights can be converted to lengths so that this project effectively augments observer length frequency data with estimates based on individual processed weights of fish landed by the domestic fleet for 2017-18 to 2019-20.

The commercial eel (longfin, Anguilla dieffenbachii; shortfin, A. australis) monitoring programme captures processor recorded data from individual landings throughout New Zealand on eel catch weights, species composition, size grades, and catch location at the catchment level. This report provides detailed results from the 2018–19 to 2020–21 fishing years and also examines trends in the North Island and South Island time series from 2003–04 to 2020–21.

This report presents population estimates for cockles Austrovenus stutchburyi and pipi Paphies australis at 16 sites in northern North Island for the 2021–22 fishing year. Also provided are sediment data for Bowentown Beach, Cockle Bay, Little Waihi Estuary, Mangawhai Harbour, Marsden Bank, Mill Bay, Ngunguru Estuary, Pataua Estuary, Raglan Harbour, Ruakākā Estuary, Tairua Harbour, Te Haumi, Te Mata and Waipatukahu, Umupuia Beach, Whangateau Harbour, and Whitianga Harbour.

This report presents available New Zealand commercial fishery catch-at-age data for hake (Merluccius australis) caught by trawl, and ling (Genypterus blacodes) caught by trawl and longline, up to the 2020–21 fishing year, and bottom trawl survey catch-at-age data sets for both species from 2021-22.

The sixth trawl survey off the west coast South Island (WCSI) was completed August 2021. Species monitored by the trawl survey include hake, ling, and a range of other species. Ling biomass declined to the lowest of the series, while hake increased. As well as supporting the stock assessments for hake and ling, the trawl survey provides information on a number of bycatch species. A total of 208 species or species groups were caught and 25 845 fish or squid of 64 different species were measured.

Descriptions of black oreo and smooth oreo fisheries are presented with data from the 1978–79 to the 2019–20 fishing years. Reported landings over all management areas combined have been stable for the past five years and close to the TACC in areas OEO 3A and OEO 4 but were well below TACC in areas OEO 1 and OEO 6. Since 2009–10 the number of vessels catching oreos in OEO 3A and OEO 4 remained relatively constant but two or fewer vessels caught oreos in other recognised fisheries in some years.

Stock-recruitment relationships can be used to predict the magnitude of recruitment that would be produced at different population sizes. The present study explored simple linear correlations between times series spawning stock biomass (SSB) and recruitment estimated by the most recently updated or current rock lobster assessments (CRA 1 to CRA 6). Results suggested that increases in SSB may not lead to subsequent increases in recruitment across the estimated range of stock sizes.

Design Report for Napier Port and Ahuriri Inner Harbour

BiosecurityNew Zealand TechnicalPaperNo: 20212/10

This is a guidance document to inform the development and implementation of benthic monitoring of salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand. It was first published in 2015, revised in 2019, and further revised in this version after an out-of-cycle review in 2022. It aims to provide consistent and clear requirements for the benthic monitoring and management of existing farms, based around an agreed set of environmental quality standards with accompanying rationale.

This document describes the development of standardised catch per unit effort (CPUE) index series for CRA 2 using data collected by the mandatory Catch Effort Landing Return (CELR) forms and data collected voluntarily by commercial fishers in a logbook (LB) programme and an electronic fine scale / harvest pot programme. These three data sets index different parts of the population, but all generally agree with each other.

An updated risk assessment was conducted for 54 New Zealand marine mammals using a multi-species spatially explicit risk assessment. Goodness-of-fit assessments indicated reasonable performance to predict total number of captures for pinniped and delphinid species with >5 captures, but poor performance to predict the spatial location of those captures. Poor performance may be due to inappropriate structural model assumptions or to biological inputs. Results should be interpreted with caution.

An analysis of juvenile red rock lobster growth around New Zealand, based on existing length and mark-recapture based growth information, is reported here. The time lag from puerulus settlement to recruitment in stock assessment models is highly likely to be 2–3 years, when this occurs at 30–35 mm tail width (TW). Annual growth increment at 30 mm TW is about 9 mm based on Stewart Island growth information, about 12 mm at Gisborne, and potentially faster along the north coast North Island.

Spatial analyses are increasingly being undertaken on fishery and fishery related data in the New Zealand region. This paper proposes a standard CRS and a common origin for grids to enable data from any analyses to be overlaid, combined, and reused while minimising resampling requirements and reprojection/overlay artefacts.