New scientific research shows a key New Zealand orange roughy fishery is in trouble, with one model suggesting the deep sea fish is down to just 16% of its original “unfished” stock size.

With the Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones due to make a decision on catch limits for this important fishery, environmentalists are concerned that not enough is being done to halt the decline of orange roughy, and say steps must include banning bottom trawling on seamounts - key feeding and breeding areas for orange roughy.

The orange roughy fishery in question made up nearly 20% of New Zealand’s orange roughy catch in 2022-2023. Known as “ORH 7A”, it is found on the Southwest Challenger Bank to the west of New Zealand in the Tasman Sea (1).

Scientists who assessed the stock produced three model runs, all of which show the stock declining, a decline that will continue unless the total allowable catch limit is cut to less than half of the current limit. Only one of the four options proposed by Fisheries NZ to Minister Jones would halt the decline, and none of the options would see any recovery within the next five years.

“We’ve seen a reckless approach to fisheries management like this before, leading to a collapse of orange roughy stocks late last century alongside the destruction of coral habitats,” said Barry Weeber of Environment and Conservation Organisations (ECO).

The most optimistic of the stock estimates put the stock at 35% of its original population size (biomass), but that is based on survey data more than a decade old. The only model run to include the most recent acoustic surveys, from 2018 and 2023, put the stock down at 16%, which means it could be heading toward another collapse. Current catch limits could see the stock decline from 16% to 10% over the next five years.

“None of the options from Fisheries NZ are good enough, none address the severe impacts of bottom trawling on our ocean. This is not a good look for New Zealand going into important scientific meetings later this month - the stock is already below its management level and set to decline further under most options the Minister is considering,” added Weeber.

A decision from Minister Shane Jones on the new catch limit is due later this month. His decision will come under scrutiny first by the regional body that shares the management of this fishery - the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) - whose scientific committee meets later this month. It will also be taken into consideration by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which is sending an assessor to audit the fishery’s sustainable certification later this year.

Last year the main orange roughy fishery on the Chatham Rise, New Zealand’s largest, was also found to be in decline, and spawning aggregations gone from heavily trawled seamounts, and was self-suspended from using the MSC sustainability label.

The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC - list below) has written to the MSC and its assessor, MRAG Americas, urging them to suspend the sustainability certification of ORH 7A due to the declining stocks and severe environmental impact.

Karli Thomas, Deep Sea Conservation Coalition: “Seamounts are ocean lifelines critical to ocean health. It’s madness to allow trawling to continue on seamounts when it smashes ancient corals, and results in the loss of orange roughy breeding areas - the government should close these to fishing to protect biodiversity hotspots and habitats critical for healthy fisheries”.

The DSCC New Zealand coalition has called for all seamounts and features to be closed to bottom trawling, delivering a petition in 2020 that over 50,000 people had signed - that number is now closer to 100,000.

A 2023 Department of Conservation report found that from 2007/08 to 2019/20 bottom trawling was responsible for 99% of reported coral bycatch (over 200 tonnes in total), and more than half of that was from orange roughy fisheries.

Other quotes from Environmental NGO’s

Greenpeace Oceans campaigner, Juan Parada: “If the New Zealand fishing industry had stopped trawling seamounts decades ago the orange roughy fishery would not be in the diminished state it is today. Yet embarrassingly, New Zealand is the only country still bottom trawling in the South Pacific, and continues to push trawling on seamounts on the international stage. The vast majority of New Zealanders want bottom trawling banned from biodiversity hotspots like seamounts and it’s time the government listened, so the ocean, and orange roughy, can recover and thrive”. 

Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb, CEO of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) New Zealand: "The Coalition Government claims to be committed to evidence-based decision-making so we challenge the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries to act consistently with what the science tells us: the orange roughy catch limit needs to be cut drastically in order to halt the decline in this species.

"More broadly, we urge the Government to listen to the New Zealand public and put a stop to indiscriminate, destructive fishing practices like bottom trawling in biodiversity hotspots. This is the only way the orange roughy and other marine species on the brink of collapse will have a chance to recover."

Forest & Bird Strategic Advisor, Geoff Keey: “Forest & Bird has long campaigned to protect at-risk species like orange roughy from the long lasting and intense impact of bottom trawling on the seafloor and its associated biodiversity. This latest science is clear - we need to move swiftly to protect the seafloor and the life that depends on it”.

Natalie Jessup, Endangered Species Foundation “Ancient corals like those found on seamounts are protected under the Wildlife Act, yet the trawl industry is still allowed to drag their heavy nets over the very areas - seamounts and features - where we know those protected corals live.” 

Notes
(1) Management of this fishery is shared with the regional body, the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO).

(2) The DSCC has set out its specific requests to the Minister in a submission in July 2024. Available on request.

DSCC NZ: Greenpeace Aotearoa, Forest & Bird, Environment and Conservation Organisations (ECO), WWF-NZ, Endangered Species Foundation

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