This report presents a description of the distribution of the ling (Genypterus blacodes) trawl and longline fisheries on the west coast of the South Island (LIN 7WC), from 1989–90 up to the 2018–19 fishing year. Catch-per-unit-effort analyses of standardised for commercial line fisheries targeting ling and as bycatch in observed trawl fisheries on the west coast of the South Island (LIN 7WC) are also presented

This document summarises the observational and research data for southern blue whiting to 2018. Included here are time series of relative abundance from the wide area R.V. Tangaroa acoustic surveys, as well as from local area aggregation industry vessel acoustic surveys, CPUE indices for Bounty Platform and Campbell Island Rise, and trawl survey indices for the Auckland Islands Shelf, Campbell Island Rise, and Pukaki Rise, as well as updated time series of length-at-age and catch-at-age

This report presents available New Zealand commercial fishery catch-at-age data for hake (Merluccius australis) caught by trawl, and ling (Genypterus blacodes) caught by trawl and longline, up to the 2018–19 fishing year, and bottom trawl survey catch-at-age data sets for both species up to the summer of 2020.

For southern blue whiting on the Bounty Plateau (SBW 6B), a new Harvest Control Rule, HCR2022, was developed that allowed for consecutive years with no acoustic surveys. HCR2022 replaced the previous HCR which required an acoustic survey every year.

This report summarises the stock assessment of hake off the west coast South Island (WCSI) in HAK 7 for the 2021–22 fishing year. The index of abundance was the WCSI trawl survey. Initial spawning stock biomass was estimated as 78 870 t (95% CIs 74 140–84 810) with current status of 39% B0 (95% CIs 30–52% B0). Five-year projections showed that biomass would increase under average recruitment but would remain flat if future recruitments were low and catches were the same as the TACC.

A stock assessment survey of Foveaux Strait oysters (OYU 5) in February 2023 found numbers of commercial-sized, recruit, pre-recruit oysters, and small oysters had decreased by between 44.8% and 52.3% from 2022 numbers. Winter-spring disease mortality is the most likely cause. These decreases cannot be fully explained by fishery and survey data. Summer mortality from Bonamia increased from 5% in 2022 to 9% in 2023. Mostly large oysters died; 70% of oysters are below recruit-size. Spat settlement was high.

The Marine Ecology Research Group used detailed field surveys to assess the recovery of the inshore coastal ecosystem affected by the cataclysmic 2016 Kaikōura earthquake.

The earthquake caused seismic uplift from 0.5 to 6.4 m along 130 km of coastline and resulted in widespread die-offs of important flora and fauna and permanent losses to critical habitats.

There was much concern for the fate of diverse intertidal and subtidal communities, which include culturally and commercially important fisheries, such as pāua, and other habitat-forming species like bull kelp.

Shore-based and dive surveys tracked the abundance of over 120 marine species at 16 sites for more than six years. Findings depict major physical and ecological changes over time across sites.

The complex dynamics of recovery are described in detail in this report and clearly show that the effects from this disturbance to the Kaikōura coastal ecosystem are both significant and ongoing.

This long-term study is the first of its kind and provides a detailed data set and quantitative baselines that will help inform future coastal management decisions.

This research evaluated using the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) methodology to assess climate change risk in forestry businesses. The key benefit of the TCFD approach is that it exposes business strategy, governance and operations to risk analysis and management and focuses on understanding any financial risks. This research is the first step on what the TCFD suggests is a five-year process. This analysis can start to define the climate change risk analysis.

Keywords: Forestry, climate change, risk assessment, business risk,

Use of shallow samples to estimate the total carbon storage in pastoral soils.

With projected increases in temperature and incidences of droughts and floods, pastures are likely to become more vulnerable to weeds and poor pasture persistence to become an increasingly significant issue. This on-farm study investigates whether increasing the diversity of sown pasture species can increase the pasture resilience and resistance to weeds under different climatic conditions. Thirty paddocks were selected in Northland, Waikato, Taranaki and North Canterbury.

This study provides improved estimates of fire danger for New Zealand under
future climate. Fire danger ratings for two projection periods (the 2050s, 2040-
2059; and 2080s, 2070-2089) were estimated using monthly changes in weather
inputs (temperature, humidity, wind speed and rainfall).

Evaluation of the impact and direct effect of climate change on the productivity of New Zealand's planted forest systems.

The goal is to construct a 'state of the art' continuous flow fermentation system for use by rumen microbiologists/rumen nutritionists in order to speed up work on developing mitigation solutions for enteric methane emissions from ruminants.

The goal of this research is developing a theoretically robust but practically applicable methodology for valuing forests and forest land in New Zealand in the presence of carbon pricing.