Fisheries news

NIWA scientists have captured never seen before footage of schools of orange roughy swimming above a seamount nearly a kilometre below the ocean surface.

Moored video cameras were used to film the orange roughy swimming above a seamount called “Morgue”, located on the northern Chatham Rise, about 500 kilometres east of New Zealand. The seamount rises from a depth of 1250 metres to a peak of 890 metres.

“Morgue” is one of 19 seamounts around New Zealand which were closed to all fishing in May 2001 under a Seamounts Management Strategy.

What is known about life in the ocean? Even though it’s the biggest habitat on the planet, most of the ocean remains unexplored biologically. So what do we know? And how does New Zealand’s biodiversity compare with the rest of the world?

Scientists are using centuries-old whalers' data from the southwestern Pacific & Tasman Sea to help better protect threatened whale species.

Scientists returned to the Nukumea Stream in Orewa last week, to investigate the trial release of giant kōkopu. This is the first controlled trial in New Zealand to test whether the native fish, giant kōkopu, can be successfully stocked into a stream.

Last week NIWA scientists carried out electric fishing and night time spotlight surveys, in the stream; capturing and measuring the fish and recording the locations that they were found in.

NIWA scientists are in the pink! They’re studying the deep candy pink or purple coralline algae, abundant around the New Zealand shoreline and throughout the world, which play a vital role in marine ecosystems.

Three new posters of the Cook Strait and Wellington Harbour seabed reveal for the first time a treasure trove of detailed information for the benefit of all New Zealanders.

NIWA scientists have discovered that nearly all snapper on the west coast of the North Island come from nurseries in just one harbour.

Snapper is New Zealand’s largest recreational fishery, and one of the country’s largest coastal commercial fisheries with an annual export value of $32 million (2008).

But in recent years some stocks have failed to recover from historical overfishing, with some commercial catch quotas for snapper being cut recently to protect the species.

NIWA fisheries scientist Dr Malcolm Francis has been awarded the prestigious New Zealand Marine Sciences Society Award for his “continued outstanding contribution to marine science in New Zealand.”

NIWA will begin tagging around 4000 snapper in the inner Hauraki Gulf next week as part of a major study of snapper movements.