May 28 is National Kahawai Day – a day to celebrate one of New Zealand’s most iconic and accessible fish.
For generations, kahawai has been the people’s fish.
It’s the fish of summer holidays, surfcasting with the kids, early mornings with grandparents, and the unmistakable smell of fresh kahawai cooking after a day on the water.
Kahawai was never just another species. It was part of growing up in New Zealand.
For many families, kahawai created the first real connection to the ocean – affordable, abundant, close to shore, and shared between generations.
And there was once more than enough for everyone.
Until industrial fishing. Kahawai didn’t have a high commercial value but was hammered by purse seine vessels in the early 1990s to increase catch history and their quota allocation.
Over time, many New Zealanders have noticed the change. The fish aren’t as common close to shore. The average size has declined. And the simple experience of catching a kahawai for dinner is disappearing for many families.
This isn’t just about fishing.
It’s about what we are losing as a country: our connection to abundance, a seascape with surface schools and wheeling birds, to healthy wild food, to the coast, and to each other.
At a time when New Zealand faces rising obesity, diabetes, and poor nutrition, we are also eating less seafood than previous generations. Yet kahawai remains one of the healthiest and most accessible wild proteins our ocean can provide.
National Kahawai Day is about recognising the value of this incredible fish – not just commercially, but socially, culturally, recreationally, and nutritionally.
Because kahawai belong in our waters close to shore. It belongs in our communities. And it belongs in the memories our children are yet to make.
On May 28 we are not celebrating the export of 1.4 million kilos of unprocessed, frozen whole kahawai at $2.02 per kilo.
It’s about rebuilding abundance so more New Zealanders can experience the joy that once defined coastal life in this country: birds diving offshore, schools of fish within casting distance, kids catching their first fish from the beach, and families bringing home healthy food from the sea.
More kahawai in the water means:
- diverse ecosystems
- healthier communities
- bonded families
- and a stronger connection between New Zealanders and the ocean.
Kahawai has always been the people’s fish.
So, this May 28, celebrate National Kahawai Day.
Catch one.
Cook one.
Share one.
Tell the stories.
Pass it on.
And help bring back the abundance that made kahawai a treasured part of life in Aotearoa.
Kahawai Legal Challenge
May 28 is significant because it’s the day in 2009 when the Supreme Court delivered its landmark judgment in the Kahawai Legal Challenge proceedings. The Court was clear; the Minister must make an appropriate allowance for our Māori customary and recreational fishing interests before he sets the commercial allocation.
A year after the Court’s decision the then fisheries Minister, National’s Phil Heatley, decided to manage kahawai on the northeast coast at a higher level so there would be more fish in the water, increased catch rates, and benefits for non-commercial fishers.
After 17 years, we’re still celebrating the courage and ongoing commitment from the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council to challenge the management norm of running fish populations down to seriously low levels, just to maximise export volume.
