Moeraki's paua fishery is under pressure and the invasive kelp Undaria is widespread off the North Otago township's coastline, a University of Otago survey has found.
The survey was conducted off the coast of Moeraki in mid-October. Chris Hepburn, a senior lecturer in the department of marine science, said the survey, commissioned and funded by the Moeraki runanga, was to provide information to mataitai (customary fishing reserve) managers.
It aimed to "identify possible issues in the local fishery, areas with low abundances or smaller sizes attributable to fishing, and to provide a good number of indicator sites to allow managers to see how the fishery improves or declines in the future", he said.
"We are still working up the data but gained a good baseline for the managers of the fishery for key species of interest.
"We observed a fair bit of fishing pressure in the area with a number of divers collecting paua being observed at a range of sites.