The country’s largest orange roughy fishery is on the verge of collapse. A new stock assessment in 2025 has confirmed that the fishery’s stock is close to collapse (8-18% biomass) with one of four models showing it may have already collapsed.

It’s not the first time.

Back in the 1980s the orange roughy fishery collapsed. One of the orange roughy fisheries - there are several - the Challenger Plateau (ORH7A) fishery, for example, was closed in 2001 after being over-fished to just 3% of its spawning stock biomass. Others were over-fished also and reduced to something like 15% and 17%.

About 1979 I was then president of the New Zealand Recreational Fishing Council and when in the late 1970s the orange roughy fishery was discovered, I made a press release, reported in the “NZ Herald” (Auckland) that extreme caution was needed as management must be dictated by full knowledge of the population dynamics of the species, i.e. when and where the species spawned, longevity and other characteristics.

Golden Egg

My statement drew criticism from the government's Duncan McIntyre who was fisheries minister 1979 to 1984 who said there was nothing wrong with catching spawning fish. I replied stating that was nonsensical as it was “killing the goose that laid the golden egg.”

I’m no scientist but then nor was minister Duncan McIntyre. He and his ministry were to prove to be so wrong.

I was correct - sad to say.

Orange roughy live up to 250 years and do not breed until they are 25–30 years old, meaning they cannot recover quickly from over-harvesting. In line with the age (250 years) they are very slow growing and thus extremely vulnerable to over-fishing.

Even an intelligent 3rd former could see that.

Minister Duncan McIntyre and the ministry couldn’t.

Consequently due to the fish’s slow growth and late maturity and likely fishing during spawning, the “orange roughy gold rush" of the 1980s led to the rapid population crashes by the early 1990s.

All Over Again

Now it’s happened again.

A 2025 scientific report released by the Ministry of Primary Industries has put the population of orange roughy on the East and South Chatham Rise at 8-18 percent of its original biomass.

The fishery has a “soft limit” of 20 percent of the original biomass and a “hard floor limit” of 10 percent.

Fish stocks below the soft limit are deemed to be overfished and depleted, and fish stocks below the hard limit are deemed to be collapsed.

Deep Sea Conservation Coalition campaign coordinator Karli Thomas says it’s due to a “perfect storm of poor fishery management”.

“A stock driven to the brink of collapse by overfishing, the loss of key spawning grounds through heavy trawling on seamounts, and the wholesale destruction of ancient coral ecosystems.”

Despite claims by current Fisheries Minister Shane Jones, the Ministry of Fisheries, the fishing industry and Seafood New Zealand that the Quota Management System works, the graph showing commercial catches from 1980 – 2024 shows a steady collapsing decline to collapse and the inability of the ministry to step in and manage.

The Environmental Law Initiative (ELI) is taking legal action against the New Zealand Minister of Oceans and Fisheries Shane Jones over the mismanagement of orange roughy fisheries.

Greenpeace are angry.

“This data is consistent with what environmentalists have been saying for years – that bottom trawling has pushed this species to the brink,” said Greenpeace Aotearoa spokesperson Ellie Hooper. “It’s clear that this fishery needs to be closed, and that key spawning habitats – seamounts and features – need to be protected from bottom trawling for sustainable fish populations.”

“Newsroom” business journalist Andrew Bevin wrote “It looks like the New Zealand Government has let orange roughy get to the brink of extinction, once again, and that’s insane because we have been through this before.”

Exactly.

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