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A new study suggests that New Zealand's total fisheries catch since 1950 is 2.7 times higher than officially reported.

Between 1950 and 2013, 24.7 million tonnes of fish went unreported, compared with the 15.3 million that was officially reported to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the international research led by the University of Auckland's Dr Glenn Simmons reports.

The researchers drew on stock reports, peer reviewed studies, unpublished reports and over 300 interviews with industry experts and personnel, to build an estimate of unreported catch.

The majority of unreported fish catch was commercial catch or fish discarded because they were the wrong size or species.

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