Fish and Game – Sea-Run Salmon Closure Threshold – 2026 Rangitata Count Clears the Mark

Setting a threshold that could temporarily close one of New Zealand’s most treasured fisheries was not a decision taken lightly. The CSIFGC worked through the issue across four meetings. Those sessions brought councillors and Fish & Game staff together to examine decades of population monitoring, work through several regulatory options, and weigh up the long-term viability of wild salmon populations against the impacts any closure would have on anglers and communities.

Sea-run salmon populations on the East Coast of the South Island have been declining for approximately 30 years. The 2024/25 spawning season recorded the lowest combined count across the three indicator rivers – the Waimakariri, Rakaia, and Rangitata – in the history of monitoring. While angler harvest is not identified as a principal cause of this long-term decline, reducing harvest through fishing regulations remains the most immediate tool available to Fish & Game to increase the proportion of the annual run that reaches the spawning grounds and contributes to the next generation of salmon.

“This wasn’t a decision any of us came to, quickly. The Council and staff spent a lot of time working together through population monitoring, management assessments, and angler consultations. The weight of that process reflects how seriously we take our responsibility to this fishery – and to the people who love it,” explains CSIFGC Chair Dr Andrew Simpson.

CSIFGC and the North Canterbury Fish and Game Council (NCFGC) jointly consulted salmon anglers and the wider public during the 2025/26 summer. More than 1,000 responses were received. This was a remarkable level of engagement, underlining how much this fishery means to Canterbury and beyond. CSIFGC thanks everyone who took part in the consultation. Your feedback made an important contribution to this decision. The results were clear:

– On average, anglers ranked ‘temporarily close the fishery’ and ‘reduce season length’ as their most preferred regulatory options to increase spawning.

– Anglers’ preference for a temporary closure strengthens relative to other regulatory options when the hypothetical spawning population decreases.

– ‘Keeping the regulations the same’ was consistently the least preferred option among survey respondents.

Council resolved that if the annual Rangitata River spawning count falls to 200 or fewer fish – approximately 10% of the historic average – it will recommend to the Minister that all CSI regional sea-run salmon waters be temporarily closed for a minimum of three seasons. Temporary closure was preferred by more than two-thirds of surveyed anglers at that level of spawning count. The Rangitata River is used as the indicator for closure decisions within the CSIFGC region due to the availability of long-term aerial live salmon spawning survey data.

“The threshold we’ve set aligns strongly with what anglers told us. When the spawning population reaches that critically low level, our fishing community has made clear their majority support for protecting the fishery over keeping it open,” says Dr Simpson.

The 2026 Rangitata River sea-run salmon spawning count has now been confirmed at 222 fish – placing the spawning population 22 fish above the 200-fish closure threshold. As the threshold has not been reached, the closure trigger has not been activated this year. The CSI sea-run salmon fishery will remain open for the 2026/27 season.

Although the Council welcomes this outcome, the salmon population remains at historically low levels. CSIFGC is committed to conducting annual spawning counts on the Rangitata River and will publicly communicate the results as they are confirmed. Anglers and the community will continue to be kept informed.

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