She was the last: Penguin starvation crisis sparks call for emergency fishing ban

Sunday, 10 August 2025

Conservationists are calling on the Government to urgently shut down commercial fishing in parts of the South Island during the hoiho breeding season — or risk the rare yellow-eyed penguin vanishing from the mainland within decades. National Affairs Editor Andrea Vance reports.

Pulled lifeless from a commercial fishing net off the Otago coast, the adult female yellow-eyed penguin — or hoiho — had drowned in a silent, unseen death.

But the consequences weren’t invisible: she was the last known breeding-age female from the Sandfly Bay colony.

Her death, in February 2024, marked the functional extinction of that breeding site.

The hoiho is one of the world’s rarest penguin species, found only in southern Aotearoa.

According to the Department of Conservation, just 143 nests were recorded on the mainland last season — an 80% collapse in just over 16 years — and one of the lowest on record.

Once a common sight along Otago’s beaches, the northern population is now at risk of disappearing entirely within the next 20 years, experts warn.

In recent weeks, the Environmental Law Initiative (ELI) has sounded the alarm — writing to Fisheries Minister Shane Jones, urging him to use his emergency powers under the Fisheries Act to prohibit set netting.

The proposal focused on the northern population — from Banks Peninsula to the Catlins and around Stewart Island — where colonies are barely hanging on, some with just one or two breeding pairs.

In a parallel letter to Conservation Minister Tama Potaka, ELI called for the development of a Population Management Plan — a process that would formalise limits on penguin deaths caused by fishing, and trigger stronger conservation measures.

The Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust — one of the country’s longest-running penguin advocacy groups — has added its voice to the growing chorus of concern.

“We cannot in good conscience watch hoiho chicks fledge without safe passage at sea,” said general manager Anna Campbell. “One capture in a set net can have devastating consequences when there are as few as two breeding pairs in some locations.”

Campbell said years of effort from local communities, iwi and conservation volunteers have gone into protecting nesting sites, rehabilitating starving chicks, and restoring habitat. But without matching protections in the marine environment, those gains are quickly undone.

“This is urgent. Every bird counts,” she said.

Jones told ELI he was awaiting advice from Fisheries New Zealand, based on a long-delayed multi-threat risk assessment, first tendered in 2022.

With neither minister committing to action, ELI wrote back this week to urge Jones to urgently close areas to set net fishing during the upcoming breeding season, for three months from September.

“We are watching extinction happen, colony by colony,” said Matt Hall, director of Research and Legal at ELI. “And it’s not because we don’t understand what’s going wrong. It’s because no one is acting fast enough to stop it.”

A deadly toll at sea

The death at Sandfly Bay was not an isolated incident.

Hoiho are silent hunters, gliding underwater through coastal reefs in search of fish. But they can’t detect the nearly invisible nets when diving. They become entangled, panic, and drown, often within minutes.

At least 14 hoiho have been killed by fishing boats since 2019 — 12 in set nets, two by deck strike.

From April to June 2025 three more hoiho were killed in nets — though these figures remain unofficial.

While a four-nautical mile set net ban is in place along parts of the Otago coast, it offers little protection: hoiho routinely forage up to 20 nautical miles offshore.

While land-based threats like introduced predators and human disturbance are well known, a growing body of research points to deepening marine stress.

“What we are seeing is the result of years of cumulative and simultaneous threats — from habitat degradation and commercial fishing impacts to disease and climate change,” said Helps Pōhatu Conservation Trust ecologist Rachel Hickcox.

“Hoiho have been under pressure for decades, so this steady, chronic decline is proving incredibly difficult for the species to cope with and recover from.”

Recent studies show the seabirds have undergone a significant shift in diet over the past three decades — away from small, oily fish like sprat and red cod, toward larger, low-fat blue cod.

This means penguins must work harder for less nutrition and some chicks can’t swallow the tougher fish. In the past two seasons, hundreds of underweight chicks have ended up in rehabilitation centres, many of them too frail to survive.

Hickcox studied hoiho foraging behaviour and found extensive overlap between their feeding grounds and commercial fishing activity, particularly set nets and bottom trawling.

“Bottom trawling and set netting disrupt the ecosystems by not only removing important prey species but also damaging the benthic [seafloor] habitats that support them,” she said. “The resulting nutritional stress is affecting breeding success, adult and chick survival, and disease susceptibility at the very least.”

Matt Hall and other researchers argue that although fishing may not be the only cause of decline — disease, starvation, and climate change also play roles — it is one of the few threats that can be addressed quickly and directly.

“Set nets can be removed tomorrow. That’s a policy decision. You can’t reverse climate change in a week, but you can stop killing breeding penguins,” he said.

Running out of time

In the weeks since the ministers received the letters, more hoiho deaths have been reported. Spring nesting season is just weeks away. Conservationists say they are preparing to head into yet another breeding cycle with dwindling numbers and no new protections.

“We’re not asking for permanent closures or a ban on all fishing,” Hall said. “We’re asking for time — for the penguins to nest and raise chicks without getting caught in nets. That’s not radical. That’s responsible management.”

Industry says it’s taking steps

Seafood New Zealand CEO Lisa Futschek says local fishers are aware of the risks and are making efforts to reduce harm.

“Although fishing is not one of the main threats to hoiho, local fishers are doing a range of things to minimise the risk of capture or harm to the penguins,” she said. “They consider time of day when fishing occurs to minimise cross over with the penguins and modify when and where they put their nets to minimise risks.”

Futschek said industry representatives are in regular dialogue with the Ministry for Primary Industries and the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust.

“We want to collaborate and bring our knowledge to reducing risks.”

Conservation Minister Tama Potaka said he would “absolutely not” allow the northern hoiho population go extinct, but admitted the current recovery efforts are not enough to stop the decline.

“These actions are not yet enough to offset the loss of long-lived breeding adult hoiho,” he said.

“We have a better understanding of the stressors now than we did five years ago, which include existing and new diseases that are significantly impacting the hoiho population. However, there is no simple single solution so it’s essential agencies and others keep working together.”

More research was need to understand why a dietary shift has taken place, he added.

He said the causes of hoiho decline are complex and interconnected, and there is no “single simple solution”.

Jones confirmed he has not yet received formal advice recommending a closure or setting a zero mortality rate but was open to considering both.

“I haven't received any advice yet that effecting closures is necessarily going to improve that outcome… but now that the issue has been raised with me, I've said to my officials: let's lock in on this as soon as possible.”

He called the idea of setting a fishing-related mortality rate of zero “robust”. “If we adjust the mortality rate, it leads to the same outcome as a closure… I want to get some advice on the various options.”

Jones also expressed frustration at the delay in the risk assessment. “I am surprised how long it takes… I'm learning the hard way that my fast-track is becoming farcical track. There is a level of treacle in the system.”

He was cautious about blaming fishing alone for hoiho decline, and suggested he wanted to see evidence of causation.

“I want to be absolutely sure to what extent fishing techniques are worsening the woes of the penguin.”

While Jones was critical of some advocacy, he acknowledged public concern — and his personal fondness for the birds.

“I don’t think any Kiwi wants to see any species, least of all the yellow-eyed penguin, disappear from the face of the earth…I genuinely will take high-quality advice.”

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