The 2016 Kaikōura earthquake caused significant coastal uplift resulting in high mortality of marine life, including pāua.

The pāua fishery is of high importance to customary, recreational, and commercial fishers in the region.

We undertook dive surveys to measure the recovery of the pāua populations on the affected coastline and have continued surveys since the fishery re-opening in 2021.

This report provides an update of survey results that have now been undertaken annually over 6 years.

Surveys have shown a steady increase of pāua abundance across the fishery and an increasing abundance of smaller pāua suggesting successful post-earthquake recruitment (appearance of juveniles in the population).

Data and outcomes from these surveys were used to inform the decision to re-open the fishery in 2021 and are now critical in informing future management decisions for the Kaikōura pāua fishery.

This report estimates the total recreational catch of southern bluefin tuna in New Zealand for the 2022–23 fishing year.

Tuna numbers and weights are collected using a monthly telephone survey of South Island fishers and a boat ramp survey at Waihau Bay in the eastern Bay of Plenty where most of these fish are landed.

Catch records from fishing clubs, online reporting, and recreational charter boats are also used.

In 2022–23, the Total Allowable Catch of New Zealand southern blue tuna was 1102 tonnes. The Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna requires member countries to report their total catch.

Overall the number of southern bluefin tuna caught in the rereational fishery was about 1500, which is more than in previous years, but the average weight was lower.

The total landed weight for the recreational fishery was estimated to be between 65 and 73 tonnes with a mid-point of 69.3 tonnes.

The global population of southern bluefin tuna is increasing under the current management system and catch rates in the New Zealand commercial and recreational fishery are also likely to increase in future.

Most fishing methods catch target and non-target (unwanted) species, and unwanted catch may be returned to the sea in some cases.
Fishers and observers record catches of target and non-target species, and the amount of catch returned to the sea (discards).

Total non-target catch and discards for key species and species groups reported in the hoki, hake, ling, silver warehou, and white warehou (HHLSW) fishery from fishing years 2003 to 2022 were estimated with a statistical model.

Hoki and other target species make up most of the catch in this fishery, and key non-target species inluded javenlinfish, rattails, and sharks.
Gemfish showed a significant increasing trend in the amount of non-target catch reported, and sharks and slickheads showed significant decreasing trends.

The amount of catch that is discarded compared with the target catch is lower for this combined fishery than for other fisheries that are monitored.

Monitoring levels of catch and discards is important for understanding the impact of fishing on the environment.

Two oreo species, black oreo and smooth oreo, are commercially important in New Zealand waters. Oreos are deepwater fish and so are not very productive which means they can be easily over-exploited.

Management is based on setting catch quota for each oreo management area, but some areas have localised fisheries which are assessed separately to avoid over-exploitation.

To assess if catch quotas are sustainable, abundance trends are produced from acoustic surveys and/or catch per unit effort (CPUE) series from the commercial fisheries within a quantitative assessment.

Reductions in fishing effort and quotas have made acoustic surveys too expensive to fund from a levy on catch quotas and CPUE series in several areas have gone from accepted to rejected as a reliable indication of stock abundance trend, so quantitative assessments have been curtailed.

This study considered a range of different assessment methods and their data requirements in anticipation of lower-level monitoring and, for each oreo fishery, presents the monitoring and assessment options.

For two management areas (OEO 3A and OEO 4), acoustic surveys are still considered feasible if redesigned to reduce costs. Quantitative assessments are also considered possible and a method to explicitly consider spatial variation of CPUE within the area is demonstrated in this work as a way to improve the CPUE input data.

For the other main management area (OEO 6), none of the localised areas have sufficient data to continue quantitative assessments and, possibly, insufficient data for any other type of lower-level assessments.

This report presents results of the 2022 inshore trawl survey of the west coast North Island (WCNI), the 9th in a time series starting in 1989, but with a 19-year gap between 1999 and 2018 surveys.

The survey extends from Scott Point on Ninety Mile Beach to Mana Island covering a depth range from 10–200 m north of Cape Egmont and 10–100 m to the south. Since 2018, there has been no sampling within 2–4 nautical miles of the coast between Maunganui Bluff and the Waiwhakaiho River, New Plymouth, a no-trawl area established to protect the Māui dolphin.

Everything that is caught in the trawl is sorted, identified, and weighed, and length and maturity data are collected for selected species and otoliths (fish ear stones) for ageing the four main species of interest: snapper, red gurnard, John dory, and tarakihi. The trawl survey provides time series of relative biomass estimates and age, length, and maturity stage information used for stock assessments and fisheries management advice for key inshore species.

In 2023, 95 phase one stations were successfully completed followed by four phase two stations completed to improve the coefficient of variation for tarakihi.

There were 72 species recorded in total, with snapper by far the most abundant. Biomass estimates (in tonnes) for the key species across the whole survey were: snapper, 8396.3 t ; red gurnard, 1160.5 t; tarakihi, 447.6 t ; John dory, 305.3 t.

The 2022 snapper biomass estimate was lower than that from the 2019 and 2020 surveys, but still significantly higher than the historical surveys in the 1990s. There were high numbers of juvenile snapper under 5 years old but a lower number of adult fish. The variability in adult snapper biomass in this survey may be due to fish moving inshore into shallow water to spawn, or may reflect the highly patchy distribution of snapper at this time of year.

The biomass estimate for adult red gurnard was relatively stable, but the biomass of smaller fish was substantially below historical estimates.