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New Zealand Sport Fishing Council > Our Fisheries > Research and reports > Recreational harvest estimates
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Recreational harvest estimates

Introduction

New Zealand’s methods of estimating recreational marine harvest are internationally recognised as being robust and reliable. A 2018 report below highlights the high quality work being undertaken in New Zealand to measure recreational harvest. It offers assurance that fisheries managers and the Minister have good data on recreational harvest, and acknowledges the uncertainty of harvest estimates in some niche, small scale fisheries.

In 2012 the Ministry for Primary Industries conducted a large scale multi-species National Panel Survey. The findings were released in 2014. The Panel was so successful it was repeated in 2017-18. Those results were published in 2019.

The overriding constraint is that the national harvest surveys are expensive and currently only undertaken every five or six years.

Recreational harvest has a significant impact in some shellfish fisheries and a few inshore finfish stocks such as snapper and kahawai on the North Island’s northeast coast, and blue cod at the top of the South Island. Most other inshore fish stocks are dominated by commercial harvest. Generally, existing regulatory tools and controls have proven to be effective in managing recreational harvest.

Annual recreational harvest

Excluding aquaculture and based on MPI’s 2017-18 survey results, recreational fishing represents –

  1. Around 3% of the total harvest from all of New Zealand’s marine waters.
  2. Less than 20% of total harvest from the inshore fish stocks in which the public has an interest.

Relevant information

Reports

Report. Web camera and ramp surveys of recreational effort. FNZ. July 2020

Web camera and boat ramp survey reporting on activity around the North Island and top of the South Is, from 2005 to 2019. This shows trends in fishing activity and catch rates for key species each year. This is used to monitor recreational fishing between the National Panel Surveys. Fisheries New Zealand. July 2020.

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Bluefin tuna recreational harvest report. FNZ. 2018-19

Report. Estimated recreational harvest of southern bluefin tuna by recreational fishers in New Zealand during 2018-19. Fisheries New Zealand. January 2020.

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Methods to estimate recreational harvest. Mar 2018

Fisheries Research paper. Integrated survey methods to estimate harvest by marine recreational fishers in NZ. Holdsworth et al. 20 March 2018.

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Recreational harvest estimates 2017-18. FNZ. 2019

National Panel Survey results. Estimates of recreational catch in 2017-18. Data per region and fish stock. Finfish and shellfish harvest. Follow up survey to the 2011-12 National Panel Survey. Fisheries New Zealand. 2019.

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Bluefin tuna recreational harvest report MPI 2017-18

Report. Recreational harvest of southern bluefin tuna in New Zealand, 2017–18. MPI. March 2019.

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CRA recreational harvest estimates 2018

Estimated recreational harvest of rock lobster for the 2017-18 fishing year, for all areas. Includes bag sizes for all areas.

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CRA recreational harvest estimates. MPI. 2012

CRA recreational harvest estimates. National Panel Survey 2011-12 results. MPI. 2014.

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Recreational harvest estimates 2011-12. MPI. Nov 2014

Report. National Panel Survey of marine recreational fishers 2011-12: harvest estimates. MPI. November 2014.

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