New Zealand’s orange roughy decline is most severe on the East and South Chatham Rise, where a 2025 assessment found the stock at a small fraction of its estimated unfished size. The biology of this deep-water fish makes rebuilding exceptionally slow, while the government and conservation groups disagree over whether improved trawling controls are enough.
How low is the Chatham Rise stock?
Fisheries New Zealand’s 2025 assessment places the East and South Chatham Rise component of ORH 3B at just 8–18% of its initial biomass in 2024–25. “Initial” refers to the estimated unfished level, not to the amount of fish remaining when monitoring began.
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The assessment estimated virgin biomass at 350,000–440,000 tonnes. This percentage applies specifically to ORH 3B ESCR; it is not a status estimate for every orange roughy stock around New Zealand.
The 2025 catch-limit response
In its October 2025 management decision, Fisheries New Zealand reduced limits for ORH 3B after concluding that the Chatham Rise and southern New Zealand fishery was under pressure.
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| Management measure | Previous level | New level | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total allowable catch (TAC) | 4,995 tonnes | 2,349 tonnes | Reduction of 2,646 tonnes |
| Commercial catch limit | 4,752 tonnes | 2,321 tonnes | Reduction of 2,431 tonnes |
| Allowance for other fishing mortality | 238 tonnes | 23 tonnes | Reduction of 215 tonnes |
These are management limits for the fishing year; they are not a forecast of how quickly the stock will recover.
Why orange roughy numbers fall so slowly
Very long lives and late maturity
Orange roughy can live for up to 250 years and generally mature in their late 20s or early 30s. Removing mature fish therefore takes reproductive capacity out of the population for decades, and a low catch in one year cannot quickly replace lost age classes.
Spawning aggregations concentrate the risk
Adults gather to spawn on deep seamounts at roughly 800–1,600 metres. These predictable aggregations help fishers locate them, but they also mean a relatively small area can contain a large share of the breeding population. Repeated removals from those sites can affect both the number of adults and the habitat around them.
No published assessment cited here provides a single definitive date by which ORH 3B ESCR will return to a particular biomass target.
What bottom trawling does to orange roughy habitat
Bottom trawling tows a net along, or within about one metre of, the seabed. New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) says about 68% of the country’s fish by volume was caught using this method. That statistic measures catch volume, not the proportion of the seabed that was trawled.
The measured footprint is much smaller than the catch share
| Measure | Reported figure | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 2024–25 trawl footprint | 1.7% | Area of the combined territorial sea and exclusive economic zone (EEZ) mapped as trawled |
| 2024–25 footprint on fishable area | 5% | Share of the area considered fishable, rather than all marine space |
| Fish caught by seabed trawling | About 68% by volume | Catch volume taken on or within one metre of the seabed |
MPI says the 2024–25 footprint was concentrated largely in places that had been trawled before. A limited area footprint does not by itself show that every vulnerable habitat is protected: repeated tows can be concentrated on productive seamounts, while coral and other slow-growing organisms may be damaged even where the total mapped area is small.
Evidence of benthic damage
A 2025 report by the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, citing New Zealand government data, said an unnamed bottom-trawling vessel brought up six tonnes of protected stony coral in one 2024 event. The incident is evidence of the type of habitat impact conservation groups point to, although it does not establish the condition of every seamount or quantify the total coral loss nationwide.
Has New Zealand banned trawling on seamounts?
No permanent blanket ban was announced in the 2025 orange roughy decision. Fisheries New Zealand said officials would investigate additional ways to protect orange roughy spawning areas, leaving longer-term seamount policy unresolved.
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The government’s position
In Parliament on 24 June 2025, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Winston Peters said:
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- Each wild caught orange roughy fillet is hand-cut, individually packaged, vacuum sealed and flash frozen for portion control and to reduce food waste.
- Orange roughy has firm flesh and a mild flavor and is sometimes referred to as the 'lobster of the sea' due to its slightly sweet flavor. The fish is alive until it is processed and then processed immediately in New Zealand. Flash freezing uses cold temperatures to maintain freshness, preserve nutrients and protect the product from external impurities.
- To thaw, put the individually packaged fillet in cold water for 10-20 minutes or remove the fillet from the package and put on a towel on a plate or in a sealable container and place in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.
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“The bottom trawling is an ongoing consideration by the New Zealand Government. Of course, the procedures have dramatically improved, but there are some stock which cannot be caught any other way—orange roughy happens to be one of them at certain parts of the country—so that is why it’s an ongoing discussion, ensuring that we follow best practice.”
The government’s argument is that improved procedures can reduce impacts and that, in some areas, orange roughy cannot currently be harvested by another method. The catch-limit reductions show that the government is tightening extraction, but they do not settle whether habitat protection should take priority over continued access.
The conservation groups’ position
The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition and Greenpeace Aotearoa argue that repeated trawling on seamounts damages coral habitat while removing spawning fish. They call for permanent closures of seamounts to bottom trawling. Greenpeace reported that more than 100,000 New Zealanders had signed petitions supporting such bans in 2025.
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The Chatham Rise result should not be generalized to every stock, but other assessments also show low biomass or substantial uncertainty.
| Stock | Assessment result | Important qualification |
|---|---|---|
| East and South Chatham Rise (ORH 3B ESCR) | 8–18% of initial biomass in 2024–25 | Fisheries New Zealand’s 2025 assessment; virgin biomass estimated at 350,000–440,000 tonnes |
| Challenger Plateau (ORH 7A) | 35% of unfished biomass in the accepted model | The base model’s latest abundance information was from 2013; projections declined toward 30% if catches stayed at the TAC |
ORH 7A illustrates why a stock estimate must be read alongside the age and quality of its data. Its accepted model is not a direct measurement of the Chatham Rise stock, and the older abundance series leaves more uncertainty about current conditions.
New Zealand-wide context
The Ministry for the Environment reported that 18 of 146 assessed stocks, or 12%, were overfished or depleted in 2024, including some orange roughy stocks. Its marine-environment reporting also estimated that about 11% of New Zealand’s EEZ and territorial sea was trawled between 1990 and 2024.
Those national figures provide context rather than a verdict on every fishery. “Trawled area” is an area measure accumulated over a period, while the MPI figure for fish catch is a volume measure for a fishing method; neither indicates that all habitats or stocks face identical pressure.
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The clearest warning is the ORH 3B ESCR estimate of 8–18% of initial biomass, combined with a species that matures late and lives for centuries. Reducing catch limits addresses fishing mortality, but it does not by itself answer whether repeated disturbance on spawning seamounts is compatible with rebuilding.
New Zealand has not yet adopted a permanent, nationwide seamount-trawling ban. The policy question remains whether improved operating procedures and targeted closures can protect orange roughy and deep-sea habitat, or whether permanent seamount protections are needed. Available assessments do not provide a fixed recovery date, so the outcome will depend on future stock measurements, catches and habitat decisions.
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