The Spatially Explicit Fisheries Risk Assessment framework has recently been updated and applied to assess the fisheries risk to seabird populations within the New Zealand EEZ. In the current report, the approach is applied to seabirds globally in the southern hemisphere. Catchabilities were estimated from New Zealand captures. Then global fishing effort and species distributions were collated and used to assess the risk to seabirds from predicted fisheries captures throughout their range.

A Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) was conducted for hoki based on the recent (2022) stock assessment model. The MSE evaluated a set of Harvest Control Rules that specified a target biomass range and varied annual fishery catches relative to fluctuations in eastern and western stock biomass.

The present project provides an update to the pāua (Haliotis iris) stock assessment for quota management area (QMA) PAU 5D and tested control rules to aimed at rebuilding catch towards the Total Allowable Commercial Catch. The findings suggested that the stock has been rebuilding and is now as likely as not to be at the interim management target. The harvest control rule from 2016 was updated to include a lag year on increases and a maximum 5% limit on year-on-year increases.

The total species population size estimate of New Zealand sea lion/pakake/whakahao was updated using the available demographic and population size information up to 2022 (the 2021–22 breeding season). All analyses were conducted within a Bayesian estimation framework, and the posterior total population size estimate was approximately 10 000 individuals in 2022 (median: 10 151; 95% credible interval: 8702–12 082 individuals), slightly below the estimate for 2015 using the same method.

A novel spatial risk assessment framework is proposed, based on the Spatially Explicit Fisheries Risk Assessment (SEFRA) and the Sustainability Assessment for Fishing Effects (SAFE). Risk is the probability that exploitation exceeds the Impact Sustainability Threshold (IST). Exploitation is estimated from the catchability and effort, using prior information on either the catchability or the population size. It is applied to shark and turtle species with different data characteristics.

This report provides a comprehensive overview of fishery data inputs for assessment of the risk of New Zealand commercial fisheries to New Zealand seabird populations. The risk assessment uses the Spatially Explicit Fisheries Risk Assessment (SEFRA) framework, which requires spatially resolved fishing effort and capture data. These data inputs were extracted from the Protected Species Capture database (version 6; up to and including the 2019/20 fishing year) and prepared for analysis.

This report details an implementation of the Spatially Explicit Fisheries Risk Assessment (SEFRA) framework to seabirds in the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone, attempting to quantify the impact of New Zealand commercial fisheries on New Zealand populations of seventy-one seabird species. As part of the project both the biological and fishery input data have been updated, as well as the structure of the model itself.

The present project developed models and tested management options for PAU 3A as the pāua fishery rebuilds following the Kaikōura earthquake. The modelling focused on key uncertainties, including earthquake impacts and recovery, and the developments of recreational catch over time. Depending on the model-fitting strategy and earthquake impacts, tested commercial harvest strategies, combined with recreational harvest scenarios, led to relatively stable, or declining fisheries.

In this report the available literature relating to the economic costs of hill country soil erosion and the benefits of its control in New Zealand and overseas was reviewed and described. Based on the findings of this review, an economic approach to the assessment of the economic costs of erosion is recommended and an analytical framework for the prioritisation of erosion control tree planting developed and described.

This stakeholder report presents the key findings of a technical report by the same name that reviews the impacts of climate change and identifies climate change adaptation options. This report provides further synthesis and evaluation to describe the current adaptation knowledge and also identifies practical adaptation activities and potential opportunities that can be part of day-to-day business.

Surveillance is published as the Ministry for Primary Industries’ authoritative source
of information on the ongoing biosecurity surveillance activity and the health status of
New Zealand’s animal and plant populations in both terrestrial and aquatic environments.
It reports information of interest both locally and internationally and complements
New Zealand’s international reporting.