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In 1960, a census of the Spotted Shag (Stictocarbo punctatus punctatus) population on Banks Peninsula found 9,787 breeding pairs (Turbott & Bell 1995). Here we report the results of a comparative census conducted on Banks Peninsula during the 1996 breeding season. Thirty-six years after the original census, the number of breeding pairs was found to have more than doubled to 22,123 pairs. We speculate that the population was formerly limited by food availability and that a reduction in fishing effort around Banks Peninsula, especially in the late 1980s, may have contributed to the observed growth in the shag breeding population.