Conservation groups are calling on the government to put an emergency fishing ban in place to save one of the world's rarest penguins, the hoiho yellow-eyed penguin, as a knife-edge breeding season gets underway.

The two-time Bird of the Year winner, which also features on the five dollar note, is only found in Aotearoa.

There are two populations, the northern, which stretches from Banks Peninsula to Rakiura / Stewart Island, and the southern, which lives on the sub-Antarctic islands, with little genetic exchange given the vast distances involved.

Both populations are classed as endangered, though it is the northern population which faces the biggest crisis with some colonies already becoming functionally extinct.

Department of Conservation (DOC) data showed the northern population had collapsed by 80 percent since 2008, from 739 breeding pairs to just 143.

There were currently fewer than 100 yellow-eyed penguin chicks on Stewart Island and mainland New Zealand, with few expected to survive to breeding age, Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust/Te Tautiaki Hoiho general manager Anna Campbell said.

The majority of the chicks were lost at sea, with only 20 percent projected to make it back to nest, and only five percent expected to breed, she said.

"There's a huge amount of penguins that aren't coming back home, and we don't know why - there's a huge gap in knowledge. It's something we're determined to focus on this season - an emergency closure of the fishery enables us to find out what is going on so we can do something about it."

Hoiho faced multiple threats, including disease, introduced predators, human disturbance, a shift in diet, fisheries bycatch, marine predation and the impacts of climate change.

Figures from Seafood NZ and the Ministry of Primary Industries showed 17 birds were killed in fishery incidents between October 2019 and June 2025, primarily as by-catch in set nets.

The Environmental Law Initiative (ELI), backed by the Yellow Eyed Penguin Trust, Forest and Bird and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), has called on the government to urgently enact a temporary emergency fishery closure, to protect the birds during their delicate breeding season.

The hoiho was in population collapse, and the closure needed to be put in place while longer term measures were explored, Campbell said.

"A lot of the other regulatory measures take time - zero bycatch would mean we need to do a population management plan, which takes time. A regulatory measure to close the fishery requires a threat assessment and threat management plan and further measures to mitigate interactions with fisheries.

"The ministers have special powers. We've seen them use those special powers to fast-track legislation recently, to do a number of different things very quickly - but they can also use those powers for good.

"We're calling for them to use those powers to have an emergency closure of the fishery in time for the beginning of the breeding season where the hoiho are returning to nest, ensuring safe passage from sea to coast where they can mate and have two eggs to give us the best shot at increasing the number of chicks.

"If we wait for the other regulatory measures, it might be too late because this season is so critical for hoiho," Campbell said.

Ocean warming and acidification caused by climate change was having a huge impact on all biodiversity, which was being compounded by set-netting and fishing - both directly when hoiho were drowned in set nets or killed in deck strike when sea birds collided with fishing boats, and by competing with hoiho for food, she said.

The resulting malnutrition had made the birds more susceptible to disease, with illnesses such as avian malaria and respiratory distress syndrome taking a heavy toll in recent years.

ELI wrote to Minster of Conservation Tama Potaka and Minister of Oceans and Fisheries Shane Jones earlier this year urging a range of measures, including a population management plan with a zero bycatch limit to protect the northern population, and a zero fishing-related mortality limit for hoiho, with a prohibition on set-net fishing in key habitats.

Minster of Conservation Tama Potaka (second from left) and Minister of Oceans and Fisheries Shane Jones (third from left) with other National and NZ First MPs. Photo: Angus Dreaver / RNZ

Both ministers responded more than a month ago to say they were waiting on further advice from Fisheries and Department of Conservation officials on how best to manage threats to hoiho.

Minister Jones told the groups the advice would be informed by a "scientific multi-threat risk assessment".

The government awarded the tender for the assessment in September 2022.

Asked by RNZ on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Minister Jones said he was still awaiting advice, while Minister Potaka said he expected expert advice shortly.

Ministry for Primary Industries figures showed 14 hoiho were killed in fisheries incidents between October 2019 and March 2025, with a further three hoiho were killed from April to June 2025, according to Seafood NZ.

A four nautical mile set net ban existed along the Otago Coast, but the groups argued this did not go far enough as hoiho foraged up to 20 nautical miles off the coast.

Dr Matt Hall, ELI's director of research and legal, said it was exactly the type of situation the Fisheries Act emergency powers were designed for.

"We're seeking an emergency closure in the immediate term, while hoiho are nesting and in the longer term, a mortality limit of zero as part of a comprehensive population management plan," he said.

WWF chief executive Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly

New Zealand was in real danger of losing an iconic taonga species, WWF chief executive Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb said.

"WWF-New Zealand is urging the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries to act with urgency and before it's too late. Otherwise, we will fail future generations who will only know the hoiho from its image on the five-dollar note," she said.

"The hoiho, yellow-eyed penguin, captured the hearts of New Zealanders when it was named Bird of the Year in both 2019 and 2024. By protecting the hoiho, we're not just saving one of the world's rarest penguins, we're also safeguarding the ecosystems it calls home, and ensuring a future for many other native species that share its coastal habitat," said Chelsea McGaw, Forest & Bird's Otago Southland regional conservation manager.

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