Download FAR 2024/60 Feasibility of FMA 2 inshore trawl survey

A series of four bottom trawl surveys were carried out off the east coast of the North Island (ECNI) between 1993 and 1996 from research vessel Kaharoa and then discontinued. This project aimed to see whether a re-instated trawl survey could inform stock assessment and provide comparison with the historical estimates after more than 20 years.
One of the reasons to discontinue the time series was the presence of extensive foul ground in the ECNI survey area (estimated at 42.5%) that could not be trawled. However recent commercial effort data suggests that the proportion of foul ground was probably less (under 30%) than initially calculated.
Analysis of the original survey data suggest that it would be possible to monitor the target species (snapper, red gurnard, tarakihi, trevally, and John dory) with a similar length survey to the East Coast South Island trawl survey series.