Feedback is currently being requested on new plans that will lower the risks that commercial fishing presents to hoiho (yellow-eyed penguins).
“In September, I put in place an emergency three-month closure to commercial set-net fishing around Otago Peninsula and directed officials to develop proposals for longer-term measures to reduce the impacts of set-net fishing on hoiho,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones said.
“It’s clear from the new scientific risk assessment that the northern population of hoiho, those found on the South Island and Stewart Island, face a range of threats, including malnutrition, predators on land and at sea, fisheries bycatch and disease.”
Jones said the recovery of the northern hoiho population relies on lowering mortality rates from all these factors. “The options included in this consultation focus on ways to reduce the risk from fishing and are informed by the most up-to-date scientific information.”
The proposed protection measures involve designating the emergency set-net closure around Otago Peninsula as a long-term closed area, banning set-netting up to about eight nautical miles between Karitāne and Hampden, and establishing a Fishing-Related Mortality Limit with a progressively escalating response system to lower bycatch risk beyond the closed zones.
“Following the public consultation, we will carefully consider what long-term protection measures may be necessary and appropriate to reduce the risk to northern hoiho from fishing,” Jones said.
“It’s important I hear from people across a wide range of interests, including commercial, recreational and customary fishers, tangata whenua, environmental groups and the local community.”
The consultation on the proposals is now open, and submissions can be made until 5pm on 12 December 2025.