Hoki

Hoki Hoki is an offshore deepwater fish, found at depths of 200-800 metres throughout New Zealand's 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone ( EEZ). It occasionally comes into shallow waters. Early Maori obviously knew the species because of the name, but their use of it is not reported. Its other names include whiptail, blue hake and blue grenadier.

Hoki grow quite fast with juveniles reaching 27 cm at the end of the first year. Males mature at about 60 - 65 cm at four years and females mature at 65-70 cm at five years. Males eventually grow up to about 112 cm in length , while females grow to a maximum of 130 cm and up to 7 kg in weight. Hoki live to about 20 - 25 years. The annual rate of natural mortality in adults is around 22 percent for females and 26 percent for males.

Food Hoki feed in mid-eater on crustaceans, such as shrimps, small fish and squid. They are prey to many other deepwater species, particularly when they are young.

Spawning Hoki spawn in winter each fish undergoing several spawning cycles before it is fully spent. A female of 90 cm spawns over one million eggs in a season. The main spawning ground is centred on the Hokitika Canyon on the west coast of the South Island. There are also spawning grounds in Cook Strait. The eggs and larvae are dispersed by currents and the juvenile fish are widespread.

The Hoki Fishery Hoki is one of New Zealand's most abundant commercial fish species and is a major offshore trawl fishery. In 1992, hoki was New Zealand's biggest single fish export, earning $196 million for the year.

Hoki is fished for all year round, but the main fishing season runs for around 10 weeks between June and September when hoki are spawning, This is the only time the fish aggregrate ( come together) and are easy to catch. Because hoki produce so many eggs targeting spawning fish may not be as harmful as some people claim. Some parts of the west coast fishery and all of the Cook Strait fishery fall inside a limited fishing zone which excludes larger vessels and offers some protection to spawning fish.

The hoki fishery was largely developed by foreign vessels in the 1960's. Coastal trawlers caught hoki in the late 1940's, but it was regarded as an inferior fish with poor keeping qualities. Since the declaration of the EEZ in 1978, the hoki fishery has been largely operated by large charted trawlers, fishing for New Zealand companies. There are also a few foreign licensed and New Zealand owned trawlers. This sort of fishing is capital intensive and the fish catching capacity of some of the chartered boats is awesome. Some big Japanese boats have 70 m by 70 m nets , about two thirds the size a rugby field. Trawlers target spawning hoki at depths of 300 to 700 metres using mid-water nets.

A few years ago, about 60 percent of the catch was processed into surimi (rhymes with steamy). This fish protein is used in many foods, for example, crab sticks; Now hoki is an internationally accepted whitefish and less than five percent is now processed into surimi. The majority is now used for prime white fish portions and pre-prepared battered and breaded fish meals.

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