Export case study: hoki

Hoki vital statistics The hoki fishery Management issues

Hoki vital statistics
Hoki is an offshore midwater fish, found at depths of 200-800 metres throughout New Zealand waters. It's also known as whiptail, blue hake or blue grenadier.

Growth
Hoki grow quite fast. Juveniles reach up to 27 cm within one year. Males may grow up to about 112 cm long, and females up to 130 cm long and 7 kg in weight. Hoki live naturally to about 20-25 years but because of heavy fishing, few survive past the age of 15. The annual rate of natural mortality in adults is around 20-25 percent for both females and males.

Food
Hoki feed in mid-water on crustaceans, such as shrimps, small fish and squid. Hoki are eaten by many other deepwater species, particularly when they are young.

Spawning
Hoki spawn in winter, each fish undergoing several spawning cycles before it is fully spent. A female 90 cm long spawns over one million eggs in a season. However, not all fish spawn every year. The eggs and larvae are dispersed by currents and the juvenile fish are widespread. Spawning fish often fall prey to seals, while their eggs are eaten by other mid-water fish, such as dogfish.

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The hoki fishery
Hoki is New Zealand's most abundant commercial fish species, and is a major offshore trawl fishery. Annual catches between 1990 and 1995 averaged 200,000 - 240,000 tonnes. Hoki has been New Zealand's biggest single fish export for a number of years earning $311 million in 2000. The last three years have seen a significant increase in earnings (only $193 million in 1997) as the hoki industry has improved its processing methods and produced higher valued products. The United States is our main market for hoki exports followed by Japan.

Hoki is fished all year round. The main fishing season runs for around 10 weeks between June and September during spawning. This is the only time hoki aggregate (come together) and so are easier to catch.

Because hoki produce so many eggs, targeting spawning fish may not be too harmful to the future of the fishery. The hoki spawning grounds are mostly inside a limited fishing zone that excludes larger vessels and offers some protection to spawning fish.
Click to see a map of the hoki fishery

History of the hoki fishery
The hoki fishery was developed largely by foreign vessels in the 1970s. Coastal trawlers caught hoki in the late 1940s, but it was then regarded as an inferior fish with poor keeping qualities. After New Zealand declared our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in 1978, New Zealand companies chartered large, overseas owned trawlers to work the hoki fishery. More recently New Zealand owned vessels have been operating in the fishery.

Up until 1985 hoki quotas were set at 60,000 tonnes or less. The fishery expanded substantially during 1985 and 1986 when quotas increased to 250,000 tonnes. When the quotas first increased, about 60 percent of the catch was processed into surimi - a fish product used in many foods, such as crab sticks. In the mid 1990s the quotas were reduced to around 200,000 tonnes before moving back up to 250,000 tonnes in late 1996. In October 2001 this was again reduced to 200,000 tonnes.

The pattern of fishing has also changed over the last 10 years. Initially fishing was mostly on the West Coast of the South Island. Fishing is now more widespread with vessels also catching hoki in Cook Strait, around the Chatham Rise and in Sub-Antarctic waters.

Hoki is now an internationally accepted white fish and less than 10 percent is processed into surimi. The majority is now used for prime white fish portions and ready-to-cook battered and breaded fish meals.

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	Sustainability of catch levels
	Dumping and waste
	By-catch.

Sustainability of catch levels
Following more accurate stock assessments based on acoustic surveys of spawning concentrations, the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) was increased to 250,000 tonnes in 1987. Industry and government groups both felt some unease about whether this level of catch would be sustainable. In the 1989 season there were several indications of stress in the fishery with reduced catch and catch rates.

The concerns that the long-term sustainable yield may be lower than the then current catch levels continued into the early 1990s and the quota was reduced to 200,000 tonnes in 1990-1991.

Since then, research information has indicated very successful breeding years in 1987 and 1988, which have boosted the stock, and high breeding success was predicted to continue from 1991-1994. Accordingly, the TAC was increased back up to 240,000 tonnes for the 1995-96 season and back up to 250,000 tonnes since the 1996-97 season. More recent information indicates another change in the stock which requires a reduction in the catch limit down to 200,000 for 2001 and 2002.

Dumping and Waste
Once on deck, hoki has to be iced within six hours or it goes off. Catches of hoki were sometimes pulled up faster than they were processed, and so excess fish were thrown back. Some fish have also been lost through burst nets. Dumping fish at sea is now illegal except in very specific circumstances.

As catches have increased, so has concern about the impact of vessels dumping offal and other fish waste during processing at sea. One concern is that offal may cause low oxygen levels on the sea bed, disrupting the ecology of the animals living there.

By-catch
Fishers trawling for hoki may catch other fish as by-catch, especially hake, ling and silver warehou in the West Coast hoki fisheries. Controlling the level of by-catch is extremely difficult, and hake and ling catches have often exceeded quota limits.

Another by-catch problem is caused by fur seals looking for an easy meal of hoki. The seals are attracted to the fishing vessels, and can get tangled in the nets and drowned or hauled up on deck with the catch. The scale of the fur seal by-catch problem was recognised in 1989, when it was estimated that 800 fur seals were killed during the season.

A code of practice for fishers to help minimise seal deaths was published in 1991. This followed work by the then Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) and the Fishing Industry Association. In that year, the number of seals caught declined to 202. The Code is updated each year.

For more information click on any link below.

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