Recreational fishers anywhere in New Zealand will soon be limited to 10 tarakihi a day, after Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones today announced cuts to catch limits for one of the country’s most popular eating fish. Commercial limits are also coming down, by 20 percent for the combined eastern tarakihi fishery and by around 55 percent for the western fishery, according to the Government’s announcement on 22 September 2026.
The decision follows a stock assessment released in July that put the east coast tarakihi population at about 7.7 percent of its size before commercial fishing began, just under the 10 percent line at which a fishery is formally treated as collapsed. NEWS WIRE reported on that assessment on 5 July. The western stock was put at around 29 percent, in better shape but falling faster since about 2017.
“These measures will immediately reduce fishing pressure on these tarakihi stocks and put them on more positive trajectories, while allowing a lower level of fishing to continue,” Jones said in the release.
He pointed to how closely the fish is tied to New Zealand tables. “Around 95 percent of commercially caught tarakihi is sold and consumed in New Zealand. It’s clear that tarakihi is a Kiwi favourite and we all want plenty of them in the water to be enjoyed well into the future.”
The eastern cut is smaller than any of the commercial options Fisheries New Zealand put out for public feedback in June. According to the Environmental Defence Society’s submission, which sets out the options from the Fisheries New Zealand discussion paper, the mildest option would have cut the eastern stock’s catch limits by 39 percent and the western stock’s by 55 percent, with a recreational daily limit of 10 tarakihi, down from the current 20. A middle option proposed cuts of 58 and 69 percent with a limit of five fish, and the toughest option cuts of 78 and 84 percent with a limit of three. The Minister’s release does not explain how the 20 percent eastern figure relates to those options. The western cut and the 10-fish daily limit match the mildest option.
The Environmental Defence Society had argued in its submission that none of the options went far enough, and that the whole fishery should be closed until it recovered. It said that if recreational fishing continued, the daily limit should be two fish per person. No response from the society to today’s decision had been published at the time of writing.
The fishing industry backed the changes. Seafood New Zealand chief executive Lisa Futschek said the quota management system was working as intended, RNZ reported. “This process matters. Sustainable fisheries management isn’t about catch limits remaining static; it is about making changes when the evidence shows they are needed,” she said.
Seafood New Zealand’s general manager for inshore fisheries, Tiff Bock, told RNZ the industry supported decisions to make sure tarakihi stocks kept rebuilding. “Industry has been actively rebuilding east coast tarakihi since 2018 through catch reductions, avoidance measures, gear changes, improved monitoring and significant investment in research. We remain committed to rebuilding the stocks.”
Why the fish has not come back despite earlier cuts is the heart of the argument. When the consultation opened in June, Jones said warming water was a likely factor. “Warming waters are likely to have impacted the number of juvenile fish. Despite efforts to reduce pressure on the fishery, supported by industry – including catch limit reductions in 2018, 2019, and 2022 – the fishery has not recovered as well as hoped,” he said at the time, as published on 24 June 2026.
The Environmental Defence Society does not accept that the ocean is the main culprit. Its submission notes the eastern stock has been fished above the overfishing threshold since before 1960, and that an error in how spawning biomass was defined in the 2022 assessment made the stock look as if it was rebuilding when it was not. Corrected, the society says, the 2022 figure would have been around 8 percent rather than 19 percent. In July the society’s policy director Raewyn Peart told RNZ the country’s third most valuable inshore finfish fishery was “on the brink”.
Jones said the stocks would be watched closely from here. “My officials will closely monitor the fisheries and review tarakihi stocks again next year. A new scientific stock assessment of east coast tarakihi will be undertaken in 2027, and an updated assessment for the west coast stock is planned for 2028.”
Tarakihi was one of 22 fish stocks in this twice-yearly sustainability review, and the news is better for some other species. Catch limits are going up for snapper and trevally from East Cape through Hawke’s Bay to Wellington, for leatherjacket on the east and south coast of the South Island, and for several deepwater stocks including frostfish, blue mackerel, gemfish and scampi. “Where the evidence suggested more fish can be sustainably harvested, I have made catch increases,” Jones said.
Other stocks are being cut. Stargazer and ling on the West Coast and at the top of the South Island face reductions, as do ling from Northland to the Bay of Plenty, shortfin eel in Lake Ellesmere, elephant fish off the east coast of the South Island and Southland, and paua in Marlborough and in Southland and Otago. Butterfish on the West Coast and at the top of the South Island will have a new recreational daily limit of five per person, alongside lower commercial limits. Jones said changes in that fishery and pressure on butterfish habitat supported action now.
For people who fish from a boat or off the rocks, the practical change is the 10-fish daily cap on tarakihi wherever they are. The decisions are part of the October review round, which covers the fishing year beginning on 1 October. Anyone heading out should check the current rules for their area on the Ministry for Primary Industries fishing rules pages or the NZ Fishing Rules app before they go, since limits and dates can vary by region. The Minister’s full decision letter is published on the MPI consultation page.
For spring fishers the other headline is the bigger snapper limit on the lower east coast of the North Island, a sign that some stocks are doing well even as tarakihi struggles. Our guide to when the snapper come in this spring looks at what four decades of sea temperatures say about the season ahead.
Do you think a 10-fish daily limit and a 20 percent commercial cut are enough to bring tarakihi back, or should the fishery have been closed as environmental groups urged? Have you noticed fewer tarakihi where you fish? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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