Download FAR 2025/34 The 2024 stock assessment of red rock lobsters (Jasus edwardsii) in CRA 3

The red rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii) supports the most valuable inshore commercial fishery in New Zealand. This fishery has been managed with catch quotas in nine Quota Management Areas (QMAs), which are usually treated as independent populations or stocks.

This document describes a stock assessment of red rock lobster in CRA 3 up to the 2023–24 fishing year. This stock assessment suggests that CRA 3 has experienced a period of steep decline in biomass over the past 10–15 years. Declining catch rates over this period corroborates this decline. However, projections suggest that the stock may increase slightly over the next five years.

More concerning is the decline in the number of females in CRA 3 since the early 2000s, evidenced by the depressed catch rate of females in recent years, which now account for less than 25% of the landed catch in terms of numbers of lobsters.