I & I NSW WILD FISHERIES RESEARCH PROGRAM Hapuku (Polyprion oxygeneios) EXPLOITATION STATUS UNDEFINED No detailed stock assessment available. NSW landings of this species are very small compared to landings in New Zealand and by Commonwealth fisheries. SCIENTIFIC NAME STANDARD NAME COMMENT Polyprion oxygeneios hapuku Polyprion oxygeneios Image © Bernard Yau Background longer than 60 years. New Zealand studies of hapuku found them to mature over a wide size The hapuku or New Zealand groper range, with 50% maturity at 80-85 cm for males (Polyprion oxygeneios) is a circum-global and 85-90 cm for females, corresponding to temperate species inhabiting waters around 10-13 years of age. New Zealand, the southern half of Australia, southern Chile and a number of Southern Hapuku are caught in small numbers along the Ocean islands. Small juvenile hapuku have whole NSW coast. Some are caught by trawlers a pelagic stage when they are associated but most are taken by deepwater dropliners in with flotsam in surface waters and are rarely the Ocean Trap and Line Fishery when targeting captured. At about 50 cm in length and blue-eye trevalla. Since 1997/98, hapuku (estimated) 3-4 years of age, they become catches have been recorded separately from demersal in habit. In New Zealand waters, they the similar bass groper (P. americanus), and can be found in depths as shallow as 20 m but annual catches have remained fairly stable at around Australia they mainly prefer continental around 5 to 10 t. This small catch contrasts with slope depths of 200-500 m. Hapuku are large, the New Zealand catch (combined for the two long-lived fish with reports of specimens almost species of Polyprion) of more than 1500 t per 180 cm in length and 80 kg in weight, and living year. STATUS OF FISHERIES RESOURCES IN NSW, 2008/09 HAPUKU | P 177 WILD FISHERIES RESEARCH PROGRAM Additional Notes Landings by Commercial Fishery of Hapuku • A deepwater demersal species with a Ocean Trap and Line (Key Secondary Species) prolonged pelagic phase that lasts 2-3 years (juveniles up to about 50 cm are found near 15 the surface). • Landings in NSW are small (<10 t) compared with landings from Commonwealth fisheries 10 and New Zealand. Landings (t) • Commonwealth fisheries harvest this species, 5 but catches are not managed by quota, and no stock assessment is available. 0 • There is a combined recreational bag limit 97/98 99/00 01/02 03/04 05/06 07/08 of 5 hapuku, banded rockcod, bass groper, Financial Year gemfish and blue-eye trevalla. Additional Reported landings of hapuku by NSW commercial restrictions apply to gemfish. fisheries from 1997/98. Fisheries which contribute less than 2.5% of the landings are excluded for clarity and privacy. Catch Recreational Catch of Hapuku The annual recreational harvest of hapuku in Length Frequency of Hapuku NSW is likely to be less than 10 t. 0 2 . 0 1991/92-1997/98 5 1 n = 1605 . 0 Historical Landings of Hapuku n o i 0 t r 1 . o 0 p 15 o r P 5 0 . 0 10 0 0 . 0 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 Landings (t) FL (cm) 5 The length distribution of hapuku landed by NSW commercial fishers during the 1990s comprised fish between 55 and 130 cm fork length (FL), with the majority of fish being between 80 and 100 cm FL. There 0 are no recent length data for hapuku, which does not 98/99 00/01 02/03 04/05 06/07 08/09 have a minimum legal length. Financial Year Commercial landings (including available historical records) of hapuku for NSW from 1997/98 to 2008/09 for all fishing methods. Prior to 1997/98 bass groper were mainly reported in ‘mixed’ catches with hapuku. P 178 | HAPUKU STATUS OF FISHERIES RESOURCES IN NSW, 2008/09 Further Reading Anon. (2006). Report from the Fishery Assessment Plenary, May 2006 : Stock Assessments and Yield Estimates. NIWA, Wellington, Ministry of Fisheries Science Group. Barreiros, J.P., L. Machado, M. Hostim-Silva, I. Sazima and P.C. Heemstra (2004). First record of Polyprion oxygeneios (Perciformes : Polyprionidae) for the south-west Atlantic and a northernmost range extension. Journal of Fish Biology 64 (5): 1439-1441. Beentjes, M.P. and M.P. Francis (1999). Movement of hapuku (Polyprion oxygeneios) determined from tagging studies. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 33 (1): 1-12. Francis, M.P., K.P. Mulligan, N.M. Davies and M.P. Beentjes (1999). Age and growth estimates for New Zealand hapuku, Polyprion oxygeneios. Fisheries Bulletin 97: 227-242. Paul, L. (2002). Size structure of hapuku (Polyprion oxygeneios) and bass (P. americanus) populations in New Zealand. N.Z. Fisheries Assessment Report 2002/16: 17 pp. Roberts, C.D. (1989). Reproductive mode in the percomorph fish genus Polyprion Oken. Journal of Fish Biology 34 (1): 1-9. Rowling, K.R. (1996). Assessment of the NSW Dropline Fishery, Progress Report - 1993 to 1995. Sydney Cronulla, NSW Fisheries Research Institute: 37 pp. Wakefield, C.B., S.J. Newman and B.W. Molony (2010). Age-based demography and reproduction of hapuku, Polyprion oxygeneios, from the south coast of Western Australia: implications for management. ICES Journal of Marine Science 67: 1164-1174. Please visit the CSIRO website, http://www.marine.csiro.au/caab/ and search for the species code (CAAB) 37 311006, common name or scientific name to find further information. © State of New South Wales through Industry and Investment NSW 2010. You may copy, distribute and otherwise freely deal with this publication for any purpose, provided that you attribute Industry and Investment NSW as the owner. Disclaimer: The information contained in this publication is based on knowledge and understanding at the time of writing (April 2010). However, because of advances in knowledge, users are reminded of the need to ensure that information upon which they rely is up to date and to check currency of the information with the appropriate officer of Industry and Investment NSW or the user’s independent adviser. HAPUKU | P 179 WILD FISHERIES RESEARCH PROGRAM P 180 | HAPUKU.