Catch statistics and length and age data of hoki taken from the 2019–20 commercial fisheries are summarised and compared with data from previous years. Biomass indices from research surveys and results from other research on hoki in the last year are also briefly described. These data were used in the hoki stock assessment carried out in 2021 (published separately).
This report provides an update of blue mackerel fisheries from 1989–90 to 2017–18 for EMA 7. Data summarised include commercial catch and effort data, observer data, and market sampling data. Biology information is also summarised.
A period of parallel reporting of fishing effort was carried out in 2019, using the statutory paper forms alongside early adoption of electronic reporting. Twenty vessels, mainly active in the northern snapper (SNA 1) fishery, actively participated in the trial, providing 294 vessel-days of parallel reporting data. Overall, the study indicates no major concerns for the generation of trawl or bottom longline fishery CPUE indices with continuity across the change in reporting regime.
This report summarises a stock assessment of Sub-Antarctic ling (LIN 5&6, excluding LIN 6B) for the 2020–21 fishing year. The main indices of abundance were trawl surveys and the commercial longline standardised catch per unit effort series. Natural mortality was shown to be poorly estimated, with bias, and was hence assumed to be 0.18 y-1. The initial biomass was lower than in the previous assessment at about 187 350 t; stock status in 2021 was estimated at 71% B0.
A roving-access survey design is proposed to estimate the harvest of pāua (Haliotis iris) by amateur fishers. There are multiple access points from a coastal highway. The survey uses an instantaneous count of potential pāua gatherers in the water during a transit of the coast, to provide an estimate of total effort in each spatial and temporal stratum, and a separate concurrent on-site access survey to conduct interviews of fishers at the completion of trips to estimate catch per unit effort.