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Court showdown looms over survival of New Zealand’s rarest penguin

Monday, 1 December 2025

Hoiho breaks out of its egg. Video / Dunedin Wildlife Hospital

The critically endangered yellow-eyed penguin, or hoiho, is at the centre of a legal showdown this week, as environmental lawyers challenge the government’s emergency fishing ban in the High Court.

The September decision, from Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones, extended a commercial set-net ban from four to eight nautical miles around the Otago Peninsula, originally imposed to protect dolphins.

But the Environmental Law Initiative (ELI) argues the measure is inadequate, leaving large portions of hoiho range – including the Catlins, Banks Peninsula, and Rakiura Stewart Island – exposed to fishing bycatch.

Hoiho numbers have plummeted by 80% since 2008, from 739 breeding pairs to just 143.

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The Government has imposed an emergency three-month ban on set-net fishing around the Otago Peninsula to protect endangered yellow-eyed penguins – a surprise move from Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones, who is a staunch defender of the fishing industry.
The Government has imposed an emergency three-month ban on set-net fishing around the Otago Peninsula to protect endangered yellow-eyed penguins – a surprise move from Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones, who is a staunch defender of the fishing industry.

In 2024, fewer than 100 chicks hatched, with only 20 expected to reach maturity and 12 likely to breed.

Seventeen deaths from commercial fisheries bycatch have been recorded since 2019, and experts say even a single additional death could undermine the population’s sustainability.

“The Minister’s limited closure fails to meet legal obligations under the Fisheries Act and risks further bycatch deaths,” said ELI senior legal advisor Megan Cornforth-Camden.

“This is the first time emergency powers have been used to protect a threatened species under the Act. The case could set a legal benchmark for protecting critically endangered species in New Zealand waters.”

Earlier this month, new scientific advice revealed the northern hoiho population is collapsing across its entire range.

Adult yellow-eyed penguins have a distinctive band of yellow feathers around the back of the head and around the eyes. It is considered by some scientists to be the most ancient of all living penguin species.
Adult yellow-eyed penguins have a distinctive band of yellow feathers around the back of the head and around the eyes. It is considered by some scientists to be the most ancient of all living penguin species.

A major threat assessment by Fisheries New Zealand shows persistent decline in all sub-populations between 1991 and 2023, with commercial set-net entanglements a major cause of mortality.

Malnutrition, disease, predation, and climate-driven changes to prey are compounding the crisis.

The temporary Otago Peninsula closure, from the Taieri River mouth to Karitāne and out eight nautical miles, expires on December 16.

It can be renewed once for up to nine months. And earlier this month, officials emailed stakeholders to say they would ask Jones to roll it over while consultation on long-term protections continues.

Options under consideration include making the closure permanent, extending set-net bans north to Hampden, and introducing a fishing-related mortality limit with escalating responses to future bycatch.

Submissions on long-term measures are open until December 12.

“The recovery of the northern hoiho population depends on reductions of mortality from all causes,” Jones said on the launch of the report. “The options focus on ways to reduce risk from fishing, informed by the latest science.”