New assessment of the conservation status of New Zealand marine invertebrates

This is a call for advice about any changes in status of New Zealand marine invertebrates, to inform a revision of the assessments for this group in the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). 

View the current lists giving the status of ca. 400 taxa in Freeman et al. 2014: Conservation status of New Zealand marine invertebrates (PDF, 664K) and data.

An expert panel will meet to review the classification of marine invertebrates using information supplied.

An assessment is made on the size of the population and the expected trend (amount of decline or increase) for each taxon (species, subspecies, variety, etc.), regardless of whether it is taxonomically determinate (having a formal scientific name) or indeterminate (having an informal ‘tag name’).

Guidance on the criteria used to assess the status of species is available in the NZ Threat Classification Manual (PDF, 478K). 

How to submit

We welcome your advice on the state of regional populations of widespread taxa.

For each species that you submit on, please tell us:

• Your name, address, email, phone numbers
• The taxon’s scientific name and common name
• Are these names generally accepted by experts who study this group
• Has the taxon previously been assessed in the NZTCS (refer to the most recent published NZTCS data for New Zealand marine invertebrates)?
• Is the taxon native to New Zealand?
• Is the taxon endemic to New Zealand? For non-endemic taxa, please consider only the New Zealand populations when providing your advice about population size and trend
• What part of the New Zealand distribution of the taxon does your submission cover (e.g., entire population, West Coast South Island, Te Paki)?
• Your understanding of the population size within the area you have defined.
• Your understanding of pressures (threats, if any) on the population within the area you described above.
• Your estimate of change in the population over 3 generations
  • Increase >10%
  • Stable +/-10%
  • Decline 10–30%
  • Decline 30–50%
  • Decline 50–70%%
  • Decline >70%
• Which qualifiers apply to the taxon?
  Qualifiers are used in the NZTCS to provide additional information about the taxon. See the NZ Threat Classification Manual for the complete list of qualifiers and their definitions. Some of the commonly used qualifiers are:
  • Conservation Dependent (presently relies on conservation)
  • Data Poor (lacking information for a robust assessment)
  • Island Endemic (restricted to a single island or island group, excluding North Island, South Island, Stewart Island
  • One Location (a distinct area in which a single event could easily affect all individuals of the taxon)
  • Range Restricted (confined to specific habitat types. Not used if taxon is ‘One Location’)
  • Recruitment Failure (population may appear to be stable, but new generations are not being produced or do not reach maturity)

Separate advice should be provided for each species (or subspecies, variety, etc).

Submissions closed on 31 July 2019.

Email your submissions to: threatstatus@doc.govt.nz

or send to:

Jeremy Rolfe
Terrestrial Science Unit
Department of Conservation
P O Box 10-420
Wellington 6143

Email us at threatstatus@doc.govt.nz if you need any assistance or clarification about your submission. 

Note that submissions are intended to provide information to the panel, not to lobby for a particular outcome.

Background information

The New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS, Townsend et al. 2008 (PDF, 478K)) allows the classification of conservation status/risk of extinction of all organisms known to occur in a wild state in New Zealand. Endemics, non-endemic natives, migrants, vagrants, and introduced and naturalised species are all included, as are taxa which have not been formally described.

The NZTCS is not a priority-setting system. It is a resource to support priority setting, among other functions.

Panels of experts from New Zealand’s scientific community determine conservation statuses by assessing population size (number of breeding adults or the area of occupied habitat), forecast change in population size (over either the next three generations or 10 years, whichever is longer), whether the current state of the population is a result of human-induced effects.

The assessments are published as PDF reports on groups of organisms, such as birds, fungi, moths and butterflies, etc. and the assessment data is publicly available at NZTCS database.

Groups of organisms are assessed approximately every five years.