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Research

Find out more about some of our fisheries-related work.

Fisheries New Zealand commissioned NIWA to conduct this research and will use the information to help understand implications of the Cyclone for on local fisheries.
The Tongan deepwater demersal line fishery is a valuable source of income, livelihood, and social well-being for the people of Tonga. The fishery has a history of boom-and-bust cycles with fluctuating catches and poor economic returns.
This NIWA-led, three-year project developed a high-tech protype system to minimise bycatch of unwanted species in trawl gear.
The Ross Sea Region Research and Monitoring Programme (Ross-RAMP) is a five-year research programme funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and run by NIWA to evaluate the effectiveness of the Ross Sea Marine Protected Area.
NIWA has developed a new method for spatially-explicit, quantitative, sustainability risk assessment of pelagic shark population.
Sharks are vulnerable to overfishing because of their low reproductive rates and often low growth rates. Most pelagic sharks fall near the middle of the shark productivity scale, and there is concern that catching too many of them could lead to population depletion. In New Zealand waters, mako sharks are the second most commonly caught shark species (after blue sharks) on tuna longlines.
NIWA is in its third year of a 5-year phased project on the deepwater line fishery in Tonga funded by the NZ Aid Programme’s Partnership for International Development Fund. The aim of the project is to deliver the improved governance, management, and economic and biological sustainability of the fishery focusing on deepwater snapper and bluenose in the Tonga EEZ.

Rig shark is an important inshore commercial fish species in New Zealand, and we need to understand more about their habitats, movements, nursery grounds and vulnerability to human impacts to ensure they are managed sustainably and their productivity is enhanced.

NIWA expends considerable effort on determining the age of commercial fish species. But why age a fish? And how do we do it?
NIWA is looking for people who have had a long association with the Hauraki Gulf or Marlborough Sounds to help them with a research project on juvenile fish habitats.
NIWA’s Antarctic fisheries research is allowing us to investigate possible effects of the longline Antarctic toothfish fishery on the toothfish population and on the local ecosystem.
We don’t clearly understand the ecological effects of commerical toothfish fishing in the Ross Sea region. To improve our knowledge, we conducted a survey of demersal (bottom-dwelling) fish species on the Ross Sea slope - particularly grenadiers and icefish - during the 2015 Antarctic Ecosystems Voyage.
At NIWA, we’ve developed an Atlantis model for the Tasman and Golden Bays region. We’re also developing one for the Chatham Rise.
NIWA has a number of projects that are allowing us to better understand the interaction between snapper and their environment over their life cycle.
The Ross Sea lies 3500 km south of New Zealand next to Antarctica. It encompasses the main fishing grounds for Antarctic toothfish, a species NIWA scientists are studying so that it can be fished sustainably.
The main aim of the surveys is to estimate the abundance of hoki and other commercially important species (such as hake and ling), but during the 20 consecutive surveys NIWA scientists have also been able to study other aspects of deepwater biodiversity on the Chatham Rise, including fish distribution, abundance, and ecology.

We need information on the food web structures of our marine ecosystems in order to manage the effects on the ecosystem of fishing, aquaculture and mining, as well as understanding the potential impacts of climate variability and change on our oceans. 

Black petrels are relatively few in number and are sometimes caught on fishing lines and in nets. The effect of fishing-related deaths on the population is unknown.
A primary aim of the Sultanate of Oman Ministry of Fisheries Wealth is to ensure that fisheries are developed and managed for the advantage of the people of Oman in a manner that is sustainable and maintains biodiversity.