KEY POINTS:
The asset value of this country's commercial fish resource is estimated at $3.8 billion, according to new figures from Statistics New Zealand (SNZ).
That figure, for 2007, was down 1 per cent from a high of $3.9 billion in 2004.
Economic conditions, including the high value of the New Zealand dollar and increasing fuel prices, were likely to have had an impact on the value, SNZ said.
From 1996 to 2007, the commercial fish resource, as managed under the quota management system (QMS), increased in value by 39 per cent, from $2.7 billion in 1996.
The information is included in the Fish Monetary Stock Account 1996-2007, released today.
Last year 20 species contributed 90 per cent of the total value, 18 of which were managed under the QMS for the whole of the account period.
The total number of species managed under the QMS increased from 32 in 1996, to 96 in 2007, SNZ said.
Due to data limitations, the valuation excluded recreational or customary catch, species reared under aquaculture conditions, and commercial species not currently managed under the QMS.
- NZPA
