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Blue Grenadier
Latin name: Macruronus novaezelandiae
Common names: Cod, Hoki
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Wild Caught
Region:
New Zealand
- Blue grenadier, otherwise known as hoki, are caught using mid-water and demersal otter trawl in depths of 300-700m around southern New Zealand.
- Populations of blue grenadier are healthy in NZ.
- This fishery poses a significant risk to threatened and protected seabirds and sharks as well as seals and sea lions.
- Blue grenadier trawlers catch sensitive bottom-dwelling species that have a long recovery time, such as hard corals and sea fans.
- Vulnerable habitats are inadequately protected from the impacts of hoki trawling.
- New Zealand Hoki Fishery (107,054t caught in 2023-24; 6,642t imported into Australia in 2022)
Blue grenadier (also known as hoki) are a bentho-pelagic predatory finfish found throughout Australian, New Zealand and wider southwestern Pacific Ocean waters.
They usually live on or near the bottom in depths from 400-1000m, but may occasionally move up into mid-waters.
Large adult fish generally occur deeper than 400 m, while juveniles may be found in shallower water, more commonly found in large estuaries and bays, and may even enter freshwaters.
Blue grenadier is managed as two separate stocks by New Zealand fisheries. The hoki fishery has recovered from historic overfishing, though the western population is slightly below healthy levels.
There are significant concerns over threatened species bycatch and habitat damage in this fishery.
The New Zealand blue grenadier fishery catches a number of endangered seabird species, including white-capped, Buller’s and Salvin’s albatross, petrels and shearwaters.
Risk assessments have identified that Salvin’s albatross is at risk of further population decline and white-capped albatross are in decline as a result of fishing activities.
Seabird bycatch has remained stable over the last two decades despite use of mitigation devices that reduce seabird interactions.
In addition to seabirds, the fishery also captures seven species of deepwater sharks (known as dogfish). The biology of these species are poorly known, but are potentially vulnerable to overfishing due to their slow growth rates and low reproductive output.
Blue grenadier is trawled both on and above the seafloor over a large area of NZ’s oceans.
There continue to be significant inadequacies in New Zealand’s marine protected area network, and the fishery likely poses a significant risk to vulnerable seafloor habitats.
