Download FAR 2025/47 Descriptive analysis of ling (Genypterus blacodes) on Chatham Rise (LIN 3&4) up to 2023–24 and inputs for the 2025 stock assessment

Recent catches of ling on the Chatham Rise (LIN 3&4) have been between 50% and 67% of the LIN 3&4 Total Allowable Commercial Catch. Catch was taken by bottom trawl (where ling is usually a bycatch), bottom longlines and potting. The use of pots was low until 2016, but in 2023–24 accounted for roughly a third of ling catch in LIN 3&4.

A standardised bottom longline catch-per-unit-effort series showed a strong decline between 1990 and 1997, followed by a long flat period and a decline to 2024 which was not consistent with the research trawl survey data. A standardised index of ling taken as bycatch in the scampi trawl fishery was only considered plausible for years before the scampi fishery introduced gear modifications to reduce bycatch (1992 to 2003). Neither of the indices was used in the 2025 stock assessment for LIN 3&4.