Catch methods
Twenty-five years ago two-thirds of New Zealand's mid and deepwater fisheries lay largely undeveloped, while aquaculture was a far off dream of marine farm pioneers. It's a very different picture today.
Around 650,000 tonnes of seafood are harvested from New Zealand's coastal waters and Exclusive Economic Zone each year. Almost 63 percent of this harvest is mid and deep-water fish, 12 percent is pelagics, 10 percent is inshore species and 15 percent is from aquaculture.
Following are the definitions of the different New Zealand fisheries and the types of fish found within them. The catching methods on the left give you more detail about how the species in each of the fisheries are caught.
"Aquaculture" - the inshore farming of certain species - is also described here but for more detail see Aquaculture »
Crustaceans and Shellfish
- Depth: Inshore waters
- Fishing Method: Dredging, potting and diving
- Fish caught: Spiny rock lobster (crayfish), paua (abalone), scallops, oysters, clams, cockles, and crab from shallow inshore waters, and scampi and queen scallops from deeper water
Inshore Fisheries
- Depth: Near shore up to 200 metres
- Fishing Method: Trawling, set netting and bottom longlining
- Fish caught: Snapper, red cod, bluenose, monkfish, tarakihi, warehou, gurnard, trevally, rig, blue moki, flounder, groper, turbot and john dory
Pelagic Fisheries
- Depth: Surface waters to 200 metres
- Fishing Method: Purse seining, mid-water trawl, occean trolling, and surface longlining.
- Fish caught: Tuna, mackerel, barracouta, and kahawai
Middle-Depth Fisheries
- Depth: 200-600 metres
- Fishing Method: Trawling, bottom longlining and jigging
- Fish caught: Hoki, squid, hake, ling, barracouta, and warehou
Deep-Water Fisheries
- Depth: 600-1000 metres
- Fishing Method: Trawling with specialised gear
- Fish caught: Orange roughy, cardinal, alfonsino and oreo dory
Aquaculture
- Depth: Inshore marine farming using rope culture, trays or sea cages and on-shore tanks
- Cultivation Method: Farming
- Species: Greenshell (TM) mussels, king salmon, Pacific oysters, paua (abalone). Further potential aquaculture species include turbot, kingfish, eels, rock lobster, sea horses, Bluff oysters, geoduck clams as well as some seaweeds and sponges.
For more information about this part of the New Zealand seafood industry, see Aquaculture.