Surprise penguin fishing ban from pro-industry minister Shane Jones

Monday, 15 September 2025

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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.

However, conservation groups are disappointed. The Environmental Law Initiative and Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust had called for a far more extensive closure, stretching from Banks Peninsula to Stewart Island to cover the full northern population of hoiho.

The yellow-eyed penguin is one of the rarest penguins in the world, with just 143 nests recorded on the mainland last season, an 80% collapse over the past 16 years. Last year the last breeding female in the Sandfly Bay colony drowned in a set net, marking the functional extinction of that site.

Jones confirmed the closure would take effect immediately.

During the period, Fisheries New Zealand (FNZ) will consult on permanent measures, including extending existing bans and introducing a new framework aimed at driving penguin bycatch towards zero.

The minister said he was conscious of the economic impact on local fishers but could not ignore the risks to hoiho. “I do not make this decision lightly. People should not be under the misapprehension that I am softening my pro-industry stance,” he said.

The decision follows a surprise voluntary closure by Otago set-net fishers last week, when they suspended fishing between Taiaroa Head and Green Island and shifted to night-only operations elsewhere.

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.

Jones acknowledged that while the move was “fiscally disruptive”, it showed the industry understood it risked imperilling its social licence without stronger action. The region’s set-net industry is modest in scale but worth about $2 million annually to the regional economy.

He said it had become clear that the Government and industry could not ignore the mounting public concern. “Full marks to the people that drew this to my attention. Ordinary Kiwis have contacted my office and said: let’s see evidence of this much-watered common sense you spout about, Shane Jones,” he told The Post.

A new scientific assessment commissioned by FNZ, is expected to be delivered to Jones shortly.

The Post understands it identifies starvation and predation as the greatest threats to hoiho, followed by fishing and disease. Jones said future policy decisions would need to be buttressed by “measurable and genuinely researched information”.

Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has imposed an emergency three-month set-net ban around the Otago Peninsula to protect endangered yellow-eyed penguins.

He stressed the emergency ban was only a first step and signalled that the consultation on long-term measures would test options for more comprehensive closures.

However, asked to respond to why the ban didn’t extend into the penguins’ full range, Jones said: “Let’s start somewhere, rather than testing the temperature of the water with both feet,” he said.

The nesting season, which runs until March, has been under way for around one month. It starts with nest site selection and partnership formation in August, followed by the laying of two eggs in September or October. The eggs hatch in November, and chicks are guarded for about six weeks before both parents forage for food, with fledging occurring from February.

Nesting parents take turns to forage up to 25 km from their nesting areas.

ELI’s director of research and legal, Matt Hall welcomed the the emergency closure but said it would leave many penguins at risk.

“There are nesting hoiho around Rakiura Stewart Island, in Southland, and north of the Otago peninsula, why are those hoiho not protected?” he said.

Hall said the hoiho population has collapsed by 80% since 2008, and ELI was made aware of a further three hoiho deaths due to fishing in the second quarter of 2025.

“The collapse of the population is such that even a single death caused by fishing could have a disproportionate impact on the survivability of hoiho.

“We have not yet seen the specific details of this closure, but on the face of it, the Minister’s decision does not go far enough to protect the northern population of hoiho from the brink of extinction. It is incomplete.

“For a species on the edge of extinction from the mainland, near enough is not good enough.

“Adverse effects must be avoided wherever possible, and where harm has already occurred, it must be remedied. Only then will hoiho have a genuine chance to survive and thrive once more.”