FAR 2024/32 Assessment of hoki (Macruronus novaezelandiae) in 2023

Integrated stock assessments provide estimates of stock status based on all available data and information. Stock status is the current biomass of the stock as a percentage of the biomass before the stock was fished.

This report presents an integrated stock assessment for hoki, New Zealand’s largest finfish fishery. It includes information on movement and biology of hoki and data from commercial fisheries and research surveys.

The base model assumes there are two hoki stocks, an eastern stock that spawns in the Cook Strait and a western stock that spawns off the west coast of South Island. To allow for uncertainty in this assumed stock structure, future work will further develop a simpler model with a single stock.

Results from the assessment estimated current stock status to be at 46–54% of its unfished level for the eastern stock and 35–37% for the western stock. The target range for hoki is 35–50%.

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