Fisheries New Zealand now assesses and manages tarakihi as two stocks, eastern and western. The science has indicated the two coasts have different nursery grounds, spawning areas, age patterns, and catch trends, and both age-composition and genetic studies point to fish being largely distinct. On the east coast, juvenile fish grow up mainly around Canterbury Bight and Pegasus Bay before moving north into deeper water; on the west coast the main nurseries are Tasman and Golden Bays, with less large-scale movement.