A non-profit which represents the fishing industry has released video showing orange roughy at depths of 1 kilometre below surface off the West Coast of the South Island and south of Fiordland, indicating stock numbers may be recovering.
Orange roughy is a slow-growing and long-lived fish which is protected by fishing restrictions and the two areas, Cook Canyon and Puysegur Bank, haven't been fished for years to allow stock to get back to sustainable levels.
Deepwater Group (DWG), a non-profit made up of industry stakeholders, says two scientific surveys were carried out last week to assess stock numbers and both yielded "promising" results.
"Initial impressions of orange roughy numbers in the areas surveyed are encouraging. The footage will now be reviewed and feed into a scientific assessment of the stocks," says group chief executive George Clement.
"Video footage from these depths has never been captured in real time at the surface like this and the results look very promising. Live footage enables us to see individual fish behaviours in real time and to focus our attention on areas where the most fish are gathered."
The footage will be used to count the number of orange roughy in New Zealand waters, and will help to ensure the fisheries are "harvested sustainably", DWG said in a statement.
Harvest levels are counted conservatively, according to the industry representative - four or fewer orange roughy are taken for commercial use for every 100 counted.
Recreational and non-commercial fishing of orange roughy is not permitted in New Zealand, according to the Ministry for Primary Industries' (MPI) website.
MPI and Forest and Bird were not immediately available for comment.
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