The Chatham Islands to the East of the South Island of New Zealand are in an area that has been identified as experiencing frequent marine heatwaves. We investigated the effect of changing sea surface temperatures on adult and sub-adult pāua (Haliotis iris) collected from Ascots Beach and Owenga Harbour in the Chatham Islands, between 2020 and 2022. Pāua at the two sites reacted differently to temperature changes based on microbial diversity and metabolic profile findings. Site specific differences were detected in histological assessments with pāua from Ascots Beach showing reproductive abnormalities and pāua from Owenga Harbour showing an increased presence of kidney stones.

Snapper is New Zealand’s most important commercial and recreational inshore finfish species.
This report describes a research study conducted in 2022–23 and 2023–24 to find out the size and age of snapper in the commercial bottom trawl catch in SNA 7, which covers Tasman and Golden Bays (TBGB) and the west coast of the South Island (WCSI). For TBGB this project contributes to a timeseries extending back to 1992–93. This is the first study to investigate snapper size and age on the WCSI.
While some difficulties were experienced obtaining samples in 2022–23, access to electronic reporting data from fishing vessels greatly improved sampling in 2023–24. In 2022–23, a total of 26 landings were sampled and 1496 otolith pairs aged; whereas in 2023–24, 43 landings were sampled and 1796 otolith pairs were aged.
Aging of otoliths has revealed that the bottom trawl catches in both TBGB and WCSI are dominated by young snapper, mostly five and six years of age and with average sizes of between 38 and 43 cm. Previous strong year-classes (notably 13 and 16 year old fish) are still present in the fishery, but are now of lesser importance (i.e., their abundance has decreased over the years since they were first present in the fishery). Overall, the SNA 7 fishery now includes multiple strong year-classes, which is generally a sign of an improving fishery.
The information generated by this study will be used for assessments and fisheries management advice for snapper stocks.

This report describes application of a novel risk assessment approach to trawl bycatch (non-target) shark species. The assessment estimated the exploitation rate inflicted on each of twelve species by fishing in the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone. Although trawl catches predominated, all relevant fishing methods were included so that the total fisheries impact could be gauged. The exploitation rate is a measure of the proportion of the selected population biomass that is killed as a result of fishing, and includes those individuals that die even when returned to the ocean. The exploitation was compared to a theoretical productivity measure to estimate whether it was high enough to inflict long-term damage on the population. Elephantfish (Callorhinchus milii) and carpet shark (Cephaloscyllium isabellum) were identified as being at higher risk from fishing.

This report describes application of a novel risk assessment approach to pelagic bycatch (non-target) shark species. The assessment estimated the exploitation rate inflicted on each of six species by fishing in the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone. All relevant fishing methods were included so that the total fisheries impact could be gauged. The exploitation rate is a measure of the proportion of the selected population numbers that are killed as a result of fishing, and includes those individuals that die even when returned to the ocean. The exploitation was compared to a theoretical productivity measure to estimate whether it was high enough to inflict long-term damage on the population. Thresher shark (Alopias vulpinus), porbeagle (Lamna nasus) and mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) were identified as being at higher risk from fishing and risk for the protected basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) and white pointer shark (Carcharodon carcharias) was lower but still non-negligible.

This report summarises pāua shell length information collected by sampling the commercial catch from areas PAU 2, PAU 3A, PAU 3B, PAU 4, PAU 5A, PAU 5B, PAU 5D and PAU 7 during the 2023–24 fishing year.

Over the last few seasons the length frequency distributions from PAU 5A show that there has been a decrease in the overall length of pāua measured live on the SciElex boards. All other areas were typical of commercial pāua fisheries, and consistent with previous years.