Submission Guide: Proposed measures to reduce fisheries bycatch

In September 2025, the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries announced an emergency three-month closure of set nets around the Otago Peninsula (from Taieri Mouth to Karitane) out to 8nm. Fisheries NZ is now seeking feedback on long-term measures to protect hoiho at sea.

The consultation period ends 5pm on Friday 12 December 2025. Make your submission here.

This is our guide to help you make your submission on the Fisheries NZ consultation about protection for hoiho:

Set nets kill at least 4-5 hoiho each year, a number which is intolerable. With the Northern population of hoiho in collapse, every bird counts in the recovery of this species. And every precaution must be taken to protect hoiho at sea.

Key points to consider:

The current closure does not go far enough:

• The closure must be immediately be extended for a further nine months in order to protect hoiho over their most vulnerable periods this season. This includes the remainder of the breeding season, the fledging period –when juveniles first go to sea– and the pre-moult period –when adults need to put on as much weight as possible.
• Breeding hoiho on the Otago Peninsula are still exposed to set nets up to 14nm off the coast.
• Hoiho foraging further north in North Otago, south in the Catlins and Rakiura Stewart Island remain unprotected. There are several ‘hot spots’ of set net captures outside the closure area, for example the Waitaki estuary and the Foveaux Strait.
• Fisheries NZ must take precautions to avoid displaced pressure – fishing efforts moving further north or south, shifting hot spots and impacting other unprotected colonies.
• Fisheries NZ must take action to ensure the closure is not breached.

Long-term measures must protect all hoiho:

• Bycatch of endangered protected species is unsustainable and intolerable. The northern population of hoiho is endangered and in collapse and cannot sustain any deaths from fisheries interactions. The government must set fishing-related mortality of hoiho to zero immediately.
• The closure of set nets must cover the entire hoiho range including nesting colonies in North Otago, the Catlins and Rakiura Stewart Island and juvenile dispersal zones further north towards the Canterbury Bight.
• The suggested escalating response framework is inadequate to protect hoiho from set net captures. Given no proven mitigation measures exist, the proposed actions for single mortality and second mortality are redundant and irrelevant. Hoiho and set nets simply cannot co-exist.
• End harmful fishing practices: ban set net fisheries and bottom-trawling across all hoiho habitat at all times.
• There must be more investment in the restoration of the seafloor ecosystem. The seafloor where hoiho forage has been degraded by trawling, overfishing and sedimentation. Land run-off is smothering the marine ecosystem and mudding the water where hoiho forage as visual hunters.

Send your submissions to FMSubmissions@mpi.govt.nz.