Download FAR 2025/08 Estimates of pāua harvest by land-based amateur fishers—Kaikōura Marine Area in 2024

Holdsworth, J.C.; Curtis, S.; Neubauer, P. (2025). Estimates of pāua harvest by land-based amateur fishers—Kaikōura Marine Area in 2024. New Zealand Fisheries Assessment Report 2025/08. 23 p.

This report outlines the findings of the 2024 onsite survey estimating the amateur harvest of pāua in the Kaikōura Marine Area, New Zealand. The fishery was closed after the 2016 Kaikōura earthquakes due to significant habitat damage and pāua mortality. Following public consultation and engagement with tangata whenua, the fishery reopened for a three-month open season in summer 2021–22. An onsite survey was designed and implemented to estimate recreational harvest from land-based access points.

This report describes the method and results for the third survey of amateur pāua harvest in the Kaikōura Marine Area, covering a 61 day open season from 1 April to 31 June 2024. A roving survey that counted the number of fishers in the water was used to estimate hourly fishing effort. Separate onsite interviews recorded catch per fisher when they had finished fishing. Oaro, south of the main survey area was included for a second year. Interviewers collected individual pāua weight and length from all surveyed catch.

Across the 27 survey days, clerks interviewed a total of 353 individual fishers and counted 1074 fishers in the water. The total recreational harvest for all daylight hours and days in the Kaikōura Marine Area was estimated to be 15.83 tonnes (CV 0.18), which is higher than the 2023 harvest estimate.