by Tony Orman
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.
Dangers of over-fishing
The country’s largest orange roughy fishery is again 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 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 in danger
My statement drew criticism from the government’s Duncan McIntyre who was fisheries minister from 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 proved to be so wrong. I was correct – sad to say.
The species cannot recover quickly
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. They needed to go back to school and in the “slow learner” class.
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.
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.”
Shane won’t be happy until most species are stuffed
Too many people making too much money = greed will triumph.
NEWS FLASH. .. all the stories about there being a God (whichever one you’re talking about) must surely be fictional?
If there were a God (any of them), then surely he / she / it / they made *all* of the species, not just mankind?
Surely, no such great architect would go to all of the trouble of creating a planet, with an environment like ours .. with so many great wonders .. populate it with all of its ecosystems .. and then put such a terrible, arrogant, destructive species as mankind, right in the middle of it?
We got to write the stories .. because we just happen to be the only species that could .. but what a terrible, selfish perspective we wrote them from?
Imagine if *any* other species had gotten to write the stories .. from the perspective of its own species .. from *any* of the other species .. or, from the perspective of the planet itself?
They would surely have described humanity as such a catastrophically flawed species, with our Three Great Fallibilities driving our most devastating behaviours: (1) Greed; (2) The Desire for Power and Control; and (3) The Drive to Procreate (admittedly, a flaw we share with all of the other species .. although we are the only species who weaponise it).
Against this background .. is it any surprise Orange Roughy “fisheries” are on the verge of collapse?
(We ought to remain mindful .. even as we read those words .. how incredibly arrogant they are .. as if Orange Roughy only exist so we can rape and pillage them?) …
The ignorance of certain MPs on this – and many other subjects – recalls a quote by Tolstoy which could well apply
to those who advocate destroying the orange roughie fisheries for short-term gain – including getting votes in elections;
“Most men can seldom accept even the most obvious truth if it would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their own lives”.
All the carry on with having Cameras turned on & in use on Trawlers tells the sad story ? Just rape & pillage !