Fisheries reports and stock statistics
Fisheries New Zealand reports on the status of fish stocks and fisheries in New Zealand waters.
Annual stock assessment
Each year, we assess the status of as many fish stocks and fisheries as possible against the requirements of the Harvest Strategy Standard for New Zealand Fisheries.
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Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Annual Review

A summary of environmental interactions between the seafood sector and the aquatic environment

A summary of environmental interactions between the seafood sector and the aquatic environment


The Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Annual Review (AEBAR) 2015 is a summary of environmental interactions between the seafood sector and the aquatic environment.

This, the 2014 edition of the Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Annual Review (AEBAR), expands and updates previous editions. It summarises information on a range of issues related to the environmental effects of fishing and aspects of marine biodiversity and productivity relevant to fish and fisheries. This review is a conceptual analogue of the Ministry’s annual reports from the Fisheries Assessment Plenary. It summarises the most recent data and analyses on particular aquatic environment issues and, where appropriate, assesses current status against any specified targets or limits.
Whereas the reports from the Fisheries Assessment Plenary are organised by fishstock, the Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Annual Review is organised by issue (e.g. protected species bycatch, benthic impacts), and almost all issues involve more than one fishstock or fishery.

This AEBAR document summarises information and, where appropriate, assesses current status against any specified targets or limits, on a range of issues related to the interactions between the seafood sector and the marine environment. This edition features some chapters updated from 2012 as well as new chapters on Chondrichthyans (sharks, rays and chimaeras), the ecological impacts of aquaculture, and Hector’s / Maui’s dolphins.

This is the second Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Review (AEBAR). It summarises information on a range of issues related to the environmental effects of fishing and aspects of the marine environment and biodiversity of relevance to fish and fisheries. The review summarises the most recent data and analyses on particular aquatic environment issues and, where appropriate, assesses current status against any specified targets or limits.

The Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Annual Review (AEBAR) summarises information on a range of issues related to the environmental effects of fishing and aspects of the marine environment and biodiversity of relevance to fish and fisheries. Developed over three years, this report summarises the most recent data and analyses on particular issues and, where appropriate, assesses current status against any specified targets or limits.
Aquatic Environment & Biodiversity Reports (AEBR)







Using GPS tracking data obtained from yellow-eyed penguins since 2003, habitat models using the maximum entropy method were developed. Main factors determining habitat use were bathymetry, seafloor sediment composition, and colony distance. Acceptable model outputs were generated for North Otago and the Otago Peninsula as well as northern Stewart Island and Codfish Island. No adequate data were available for the Catlins, the eastern Foveaux Strait region, and southern Stewart Island; extrapolation from other regions proved unreliable. Habitat use maps are presented.

A survey of high-density breeding colonies of Westland petrels Procellaria westlandica, an endemic New Zealand seabird, undertaken between 2007 to 2011, conservatively estimated the population size to be 2827 (95%CI, 2143–3510) annual breeding pairs. The population may have been underestimated by up to 10% but is unlikely to have exceeded 4000 annual breeding pairs at the time of this survey. This estimate is the first detailed population estimate for all known breeding areas of this species.

Commercial catch-effort data and fisheries observer records of catch and discards by species were used to estimate the rate and level of non-target catch and discards in the ling longline fisheries for the fishing years 2002–03 to 2017–18. Estimates were made for broad categories of catch and discards including target species, QMS species, non-QMS fish, and non-QMS invertebrate species, and estimates of annual catch were made for several of the major individual non-target species.


This document provides consistent and clear guidance for monitoring and managing water column effects of salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds (NZ). The protocol for conducting water column monitoring, as well as the compliance framework are based around an agreed set of environmental quality standards (EQS). This is a living document that is reviewed, updated and amended as required and represents our proposed ‘best practice’ at the time of conception in June-October 2018.



This report presents an updated assessment of the risk of commercial fisheries in New Zealand for 71 seabird taxa breeding in this region, including data to the 2016–17 fishing year. The risk for seabirds was estimated as the ratio of total fishery-related deaths to the Population Sustainability Threshold, with 18 species having an estimated risk ratio that was non-negligible. Black petrel continued to be identified as the species most at risk from commercial fisheries in New Zealand waters.


We used a new dataset of benthic invertebrate occurrence developed from quantitative seabed photographic surveys to build improved predictive models of taxon and community distributions on Chatham Rise. These predictions are the first abundance-based models of benthic distributions in the region and are the best-informed representations of seabed distributions on Chatham Rise to date, providing a resource that will have applications in marine environmental management and ecosystem research.