Fish welfare is by no means a straightforward concept. As with all animals, the two major
challenges here are the meaning or definition of animal welfare and how best to objectively
measure it.

Under normal circumstances, MPI would have released a new edition of the situation and outlook for primary industries (SOPI) report in June 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic means the situation changes on an almost daily basis. The outlook for our sectors is more uncertain than ever before so we decided to delay the release of our usual forecasting document. Instead, MPI has prepared a report on how COVID-19 has disrupted New Zealand's primary industry exports. This shows that, in general, primary sector exports are holding up well. This is primarily due to the New Zealand dollar weakening against the United States dollar.

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.