Final days to sign as Swim4TheOcean petition grows

Ridler says there is still time for New Zealanders to be part of the moment ahead of the deadline for signatures at midday 28 April; “We’ve seen incredible support, but we’re not done yet. If you care about the ocean, now’s the time to add your name before we take this to Parliament.”

The petition, which calls for an end to bottom trawling starting with seamounts, will be presented at Parliament on 29 April.

The handover follows Ridler’s history-making Swim4TheOcean, completed earlier this month after 90 days, 1,367 kilometres and more than 468 hours in the ocean.

Live Ocean Co-founder Blair Tuke says the scale of public support shows how strongly New Zealanders feel about the future of the ocean and reflects what the team heard firsthand along the route from coastal communities.

“We need to harvest wild fish from the ocean in a smarter way because the bottom trawling method we’re using right now is causing significant damage to the seafloor and to the ecosystems on that seafloor,” Tuke says.

Support continues to build, with more than 85,000 signatures on the call for action. Ridler said the return to Parliament is about turning that momentum into meaningful change.

After swimming into Whairepo Lagoon on 4 April, he addressed the thousands-strong crowd, saying: “I want my generation to be the generation that says not ‘do you remember how good it used to be’, but ‘do you remember how bad it used to be?’”

The petition calls on the New Zealand Government to end bottom trawling on all seamounts – at home and in the high seas by the end of 2027 – and to activate a quick transition away from bottom trawling entirely.

Ridler’s swim has been widely regarded as one of the toughest open water endurance feats in the world and it has engaged New Zealanders in the fight for a healthy ocean.

Now, with the signature deadline just days away attention turns to the strength of the public mandate behind it. People have until midday 28 April to add their name at swim4theocean.org before the petition is formally delivered to Parliament.