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Proposed spawning area closure to orange roughy fishing in the East and South Chatham Rise (ORH 3B) from 1 June 2026

Have your say

Fisheries New Zealand is consulting on options for closures to commercial fishing for orange roughy in the spawning areas of the East and South Chatham Rise part of ORH 3B under section 11 of the Fisheries Act 1996.

We welcome your feedback on the proposed options and any alternatives. Your feedback will be incorporated into our final advice to the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries and will help to inform their decisions on any changes.  

This consultation opened on 11 March and we are accepting submissions until 5pm on 10 April 2026. 

Consultation document

Review of proposed spawning area closure to orange roughy fishing in East and South Chatham Rise (ORH 3B) from 1 June 2026 [PDF, 1.7 MB]

Related information

This review follows engagement in 2025 on setting the Total Allowable Catch (TAC), the Total Allowable Commercial Catch (TACC), and non-regulated sub-area catch limits for ORH 3B for the 2025–26 fishing year. 

Review of sustainability measures for orange roughy (ORH 3B) and blue mackerel (EMA 1) – 2025 October round

Background to the proposed changes

The Minister for Oceans and Fisheries agreed to decrease the ORH 3B TACC from 4,752 to 2,321 tonnes for the 2025–26 fishing year. As part of of this, the non-regulatory sub-area catch limit for the East and South Chatham Rise was reduced to 324 tonnes to allow the stock to rebuild.

To support the rebuild, the minister agreed that the reduced TACC would be supported by the closure of orange roughy spawning areas. This is based on recent research that indicates fishing activity may disrupt spawning aggregations and influence spawning success. 

Making your submission

Email your feedback by 5pm on 10 April 2026 to FMSubmissions@mpi.govt.nz

While we prefer email, you can post written submissions to:

Orange roughy spawning area closure submission 
Ministry for Primary Industries
PO Box 2526
Wellington 6140
New Zealand.

What to include

Make sure you tell us in your submission:

  • the title of the consultation document
  • your name and title 
  • your organisation's name (if you are submitting on behalf of an organisation, and whether your submission represents the whole organisation or a section of it)
  • your contact details (such as phone number, address, and email). 

Submissions are public information

Note that all, part, or a summary of your submission may be published on this website. Most often this happens when we issue a document that reviews the submissions received.

People can also ask for copies of submissions under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA). The OIA says we must make the content of submissions available unless we have good reason for withholding it. Those reasons are detailed in sections 6 and 9 of the OIA.

If you think there are grounds to withhold specific information from publication, make this clear in your submission or contact us. Reasons may include that it discloses commercially sensitive or personal information. However, any decision MPI makes to withhold details can be reviewed by the Ombudsman, who may direct us to release it.

Official Information Act 1982 – NZ Legislation

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