The yellow-eyed penguin, which lives exclusively in New Zealand, is in danger.

Considered the world's rarest penguin species, there are only around 1700 breeding pairs of hoiho left in the wild.

Forest and Bird claims nearly half the breeding population on Codfish Island, has been wiped out by commercial fishing.

CEO Kevin Hague wants government agencies, scientists, organisations and the fishing industry to work on an urgent solution.

''If that's not possible for some reason then the Government needs to say 'no' to commercial fishing in known areas where penguins forage for food.''