Genetic stock structure of New Zealand fish and the use of genomics in fisheries management: an overview and outlook

Abstract

Sustainable management of wild fisheries requires accurate delineation of reproductively isolated stocks to avoid depletion of a commercially and ecologically important resource. However, there is still a lack of reliable information on stock structure for most fishery species in New Zealand. DNA markers can assist in the delineation of stocks, but they also can provide significant insights into other areas related to the genetic diversity and the response to pressures. In this review, we first provide a detailed summary of the population genetic studies of New Zealand fish species, with a particular focus on hoki, orange roughy, snapper, ling, and blue cod. We find that genetic data is uniformly lacking for most species. We then discuss how the global shift from low resolution markers to genomics in fisheries genetics has far reaching consequences for the sustainable management of our aquatic resources, by allowing us to address multiple important pressures that wild fisheries are currently facing, and we introduce some of these briefly. We conclude by emphasising the need for a more systematic and holistic approach for the use of genomics in New Zealand fisheries management, so that the best evidence is available to inform the decisions of policy makers.