Three stratified random trawl surveys completed between 2018–2020 off the west coast North Island using RV Kaharoa provided a comparison with historical surveys last carried out in 1999. The time series reveals a substantial increase in snapper biomass has occurred since 1999, but a decline in pre-recruit red gurnard was apparent. John dory biomass also trended downwards. CVs for these species were all within target. For tarakihi, CVs were higher and trends were less clear.

This project estimated the at-sea distribution within the New Zealand EEZ of 11 seabird taxa considered to be most at risk from captures by New Zealand commercial fishing. Predictive habitat models fitted to spatial information were used to predict at-sea distribution of each taxon for each month. Seabird tracking data were used to derive monthly proportions of birds within the EEZ, which were nearly always lower than those assumed by the most recent multispecies seabird spatial risk assessment.