An emergency set net fishing ban is being put into place around the Otago Peninsula to protect a threatened penguin population, following urgent calls from conservation groups who fear one of the world’s rarest penguins are on the brink of extinction.
The three-month ban would be in place from 5pm on Tuesday.
Department of Conservation (DoC) data showed the northern hoiho population (South Island and Rakiura/Stewart Island) had collapsed by 80% since 2008, from 739 breeding pairs to just 143, a drop of 80% from 2008 numbers.
Conservation groups including the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust/Te Tautiaki Hoiho and the Environmental Law Initiative had urged the Government to put an emergency ban in place for the penguins’ breeding season, which began last month.
At the time, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones and Conservation Minister Tama Potaka both said they were awaiting further advice, including a long-awaited “scientific multi-threat risk assessment”, which had been commissioned in September 2022.
In a statement on Monday morning, Jones said he would use his ministerial powers to implement “an immediate emergency closure of the set net fishery around the Otago Peninsula for a period of three months.
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“As the self-proclaimed champion of the fisheries industry, I do not make this decision lightly.”
Jones was “deeply conscious” of the effect this would have on the livelihoods of fishers in the area, and said people should not be under the misapprehension he was softening his pro-industry stance.
A four nautical mile set net ban already existed along the Otago coast, but conservation groups had previously argued this did not go far enough as hoiho foraged up to 20 nautical miles off the coast.
Hoiho faced multiple threats, including disease, introduced predators, human disturbance, a shift in diet, fisheries by-catch, marine predation and the impacts of climate change.
There were currently fewer than 100 yellow-eyed penguin chicks on Stewart Island and mainland New Zealand, with few expected to survive to breeding age.
Figures from Seafood NZ and the Ministry of Primary Industries showed 17 birds were killed in fishery incidents between October 2019 and June 2025, primarily as by-catch in set nets.
“A new scientific assessment commissioned by Fisheries New Zealand, which will be publicly released shortly, shows the greatest threats to the northern hoiho are starvation and predation, followed by fishing and disease,” Jones said.
