This report presents results of the 2022 inshore trawl survey of the west coast North Island (WCNI), the 9th in a time series starting in 1989, but with a 19-year gap between 1999 and 2018 surveys.

The survey extends from Scott Point on Ninety Mile Beach to Mana Island covering a depth range from 10–200 m north of Cape Egmont and 10–100 m to the south. Since 2018, there has been no sampling within 2–4 nautical miles of the coast between Maunganui Bluff and the Waiwhakaiho River, New Plymouth, a no-trawl area established to protect the Māui dolphin.

Everything that is caught in the trawl is sorted, identified, and weighed, and length and maturity data are collected for selected species and otoliths (fish ear stones) for ageing the four main species of interest: snapper, red gurnard, John dory, and tarakihi. The trawl survey provides time series of relative biomass estimates and age, length, and maturity stage information used for stock assessments and fisheries management advice for key inshore species.

In 2023, 95 phase one stations were successfully completed followed by four phase two stations completed to improve the coefficient of variation for tarakihi.

There were 72 species recorded in total, with snapper by far the most abundant. Biomass estimates (in tonnes) for the key species across the whole survey were: snapper, 8396.3 t ; red gurnard, 1160.5 t; tarakihi, 447.6 t ; John dory, 305.3 t.

The 2022 snapper biomass estimate was lower than that from the 2019 and 2020 surveys, but still significantly higher than the historical surveys in the 1990s. There were high numbers of juvenile snapper under 5 years old but a lower number of adult fish. The variability in adult snapper biomass in this survey may be due to fish moving inshore into shallow water to spawn, or may reflect the highly patchy distribution of snapper at this time of year.

The biomass estimate for adult red gurnard was relatively stable, but the biomass of smaller fish was substantially below historical estimates.

This report updates and summarises the commercial catches, standardised catch per unit effort (CPUE), and observer and research data for hoki (Macruronus novaezelandiae) caught commercially during the 2021–22 fishing year.

These data include time series of length-at-age and catch-at-age from observer and land-based sampling of commercial catch. Length and age data from spawning and non-spawning fisheries are compared with those from previous years.

The overall catch in the 2021–22 fishing year was lower than the catch in 2020–21. Catches in 2021–22 decreased in most areas (west coast South Island, Cook Strait, Chatham Rise, Sub-Antarctic, and east coast North Island) and increased in the east coast South Island and Puysegur fisheries. The CPUE indices varied by area but were all at or above the long-term average.

Catch-at-age data are important for the assessment of fish stocks because they provide information on the year class strength of age classes caught and are used in analyses of trawl surveys and commercial fisheries. Most of the catch in 2021–22 was of fish 45–90 cm length from the 2006–2019 year classes.

The 2014 and 2015 year classes were important in all areas except for the Chatham Rise, and the 2016 and 2017 year classes were low in all the main fisheries. The 2018 and 2019 year classes appeared strong in the WC.north, SA.snares, SA.auck, CR.shallow, and CR.deep sub-fisheries.

Biomass indices from research surveys and results from other research on hoki in the most recent year are also briefly described. Data in this report were incorporated in the model for the hoki stock assessment in 2023.

Research report part of the 'Revitalising calf rearing' project funded under Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures.

A 2013 workshop Future proofing New Zealand’s shellfish aquaculture: Monitoring and adaptation to ocean acidification, brought together experts from government, the aquaculture industry and science organizations from the US and NZ to raise awareness of ocean acidification within the NZ aquaculture community, identify ways to protect the aquaculture industry and develop US-NZ scientific cooperation to address OA. Papers presented at the workshop and points raised during discussion are summarised.

With funding from Fisheries New Zealand and support from the Department of Conservation (DOC), we trialled attaching short-term (24 hours) suction-cup recording tags (DTAGs) to Hector’s dolphins in Te Koko-o-Kupe/Cloudy Bay.

We wanted to determine if DTAGs are a possible tool for monitoring this endangered species and could help answer research gaps identified by DOC’s Threat Management Plan and Research Strategy.

We found these suction-cup DTAGs had little to no impact on Hector’s dolphin behaviour.

We tagged 11 dolphins, and their tags stayed attached for 1.5 to 24 hours.

We gathered over 83 hours of data on this species, including the first ever three-dimensional recordings of Hector’s dolphin underwater, their night-time movements, and recordings of the different sounds they make and hear during a typical day.

Overall, such insights about these dolphins can influence how we manage them in relation to their various threats.

This report provides results for the 20th summer trawl survey of hoki, hake, ling, and associated species in the Sub-Antarctic carried out from 23 November to 23 December 2022. Seventy-four of the 80 planned phase one stations were completed; there was no time to carry out phase two.

When compared with the previous survey in 2020, biomass estimates in core strata (200–800 m depths) were up by 31% for hoki, up by 10% for ling, and down by 25% for hake. The precision target (coefficient of variation) of 15% was met for hoki and ling but slightly exceeded for hake.

The hoki length and age distributions were mainly adult fish with few 1+ fish (2021 year class, fish less than 45 cm) and few 2+ fish (2020 year class, 45–55 cm). The hake and ling length and age distributions were broad, with few juvenile fish.

The acoustic estimate of midwater fish abundance was lower than that in 2020 but still above the average of the time series.

A total of 188 species or species groups were caught, of which 88 different species of fish and squid (29 560 fish) were measured, and 12 320 fish were individually weighed during the survey.