Alarming report shows rare penguin in freefall as Government moves to extend fishing ban

Monday, 17 November 2025

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The Government is preparing to extend its emergency ban on commercial set-netting around the Otago Peninsula, as new scientific advice paints the starkest picture yet of the decline of the yellow-eyed penguin.

A major threat assessment delivered to officials this month shows the hoiho species is collapsing across every part of its northern range - the South Island and Rakiura/Stewart Island - driven mainly by poor survival of juveniles and adults.

Population models tracking the rare seabirds from 1991 to 2023 show persistent decline in all sub-populations.

Researchers identified commercial set-net entanglements as a key threat, responsible for an estimated 17 deaths in the 2022–23 season, most occurring around the Otago Peninsula where risk has spiked sharply since 2018–19.

It also says malnutrition is hitting chicks and juveniles hardest, especially females. Disease is having its greatest impact on chicks and juveniles. And predation primarily affects juveniles and adults.

The long-awaited Fisheries NZ report also says warming seas, across the penguins’ full range, correlate with reduced survival at all ages, likely reflecting climate-driven changes to prey availability.

The peninsula also faces the highest overlap with human pressures, including recreational netting, dogs, oil-spill risk, and other coastal activity.

The assessment argues the population could stabilise if either juvenile or adult deaths were halved - but eliminating chick deaths alone would not be enough.

The temporary closure, imposed unexpectedly by Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones in September, blocks set-netting from the Taieri River mouth to Karitāne and out to eight nautical miles.

It expires on December 16 but can be renewed once for up to nine months. Last week officials emailed stakeholders to say they would ask Jones to roll it over while consultation on long-term protections continues.

The ban marked a departure for Jones, who has long championed the commercial fishing sector.

But he has faced rising alarm, particularly after the last breeding female at Sandfly Bay drowned in a set net last year, rendering that colony functionally extinct.

On Monday, Jones released a wider package of options, including making the Otago closure permanent, extending set-net bans north to Hampden, and introducing a fishing-related mortality limit with escalating responses to any future bycatch.

“It’s clear from the new scientific risk assessment that the northern population of hoiho, those found on the South Island and Stewart Island, face a range of threats including malnutrition, predators on land and at sea, fisheries bycatch and disease,” he said.

“The recovery of the northern hoiho population depends on reductions of mortality from all these causes. The options included in this consultation focus on ways to reduce the risk from fishing and are informed by the most up to date scientific information.”

He acknowledged the potential impact on commercial fishers but said he could not ignore the mounting risks.

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

The Environmental Law Initiative and Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust have pushed for a closure spanning the species’ entire northern range, from Banks Peninsula to Rakiura Stewart Island.

WWF-New Zealand welcomed the extension but said it must be “a bridge to something stronger.” chief executive Kayla Kingdon-Bebb said fewer than 150 breeding pairs remain on the mainland.

“I struggle to imagine a future where the only place we can see this special bird is on the back of our five-dollar note - and I’m sure most Kiwis would feel the same.

“We know what's needed to save the hoiho from extinction,” Kingdon-Bebb said.

“We urgently need more Marine Protected Areas, an end to destructive fishing practices like bottom trawling in their foraging areas, and better fisheries management so hoiho aren’t starving to death. We need to be pulling out all the stops –and fast.”

ELI’s director of research and legal, Matt Hall, said: “We're at the point where every hoiho matters, and we have to do everything we can to remove the threats that endanger them.

“We'll be closely scrutinising the consultation document to ensure that the Minister is fulfilling his legal duties under the Fisheries Act.”

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