New Zealand is still bottom trawling seamounts in our own waters, and the only nation still bottom trawling seamounts in the South Pacific high seas.
It’s time to stop being an outlier and protect the ocean’s most vital habitats.
We’re calling 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.
We are a nation of innovators and ocean people.
It’s time to do the right thing.
For the ocean. For our future.
Together, 73,647 people have added their names to the call to end bottom trawling, starting with seamounts.
The Swim4TheOcean petition has now closed.
Thank you to everyone who backed this. We’re proud to carry these voices to Parliament, where the petition will be presented and read on 29 April.
Jono Ridler and Blair Tuke will be in Wellington meeting with MPs across the House – taking this call directly to decision-makers.
An important step – but not the end.
It’s an epic 1,000-mile ocean swim for a healthy ocean!
Jono Ridler is the legend who swam 99km, non-stop, no-wetsuit from Aotea Great Barrier Island to Campbells Bay on Auckland’s North Shore in 2023, smashing the New Zealand record with his Swim4TheGulf. Now, Live Ocean and Jono Ridler are teaming up again for Swim4TheOcean – an even bigger and more ambitious record-swim attempt to start on 5 January 2026. It’s an endurance effort that aims to ignite New Zealanders around the call for a healthy ocean with a clear call to end bottom trawling.
It’s more than a record-setting swim, it’s about igniting the country to get behind the need for a healthy thriving ocean! As Jono swims into Wellington, he will carry a clear call to action – to end bottom trawling. People will be able to show their support by adding their name to the call for action.
Bottom trawling drags heavy weighted nets across the seafloor – and destroys habitat, biodiversity and releases stored carbon. The first cab off the rank would be ending bottom trawling on our most critically important underwater spaces and the seamounts (sea mountains) that underpin the health of the ocean. Science is very clear – there is massive damage to these areas.
Aotearoa is home to one of the largest and most special ocean spaces on the planet. That’s a privilege and a responsibility. Our ocean is under huge strain, but we can choose to protect it. Moving away from bottom trawling is one of the most urgent actions we can take right now.
Swim4TheOcean is a 1,000-mile mission – starting at North Cape at the very top of the north island swimming down the entire east coast to Wellington. All up it’ll take about 90 days.
People can get behind the call to end bottom trawling by signing our call to action – it’s not up yet, but it will be on the website before Jono starts swimming in January.
An incredible group of individuals and organisations who believe in what we’re doing are making this possible. You’ll see some of their names and logos on the caravan, the boat and our t-shirts – and there are many more who have provided equipment, provisions and services for free or discounted.
There is an epic live tracker on swim4theocean.org, and you can also follow along on social media @itsliveocean.
35 year-old Jono Ridler from New Zealand is an ultra-marathon swimmer and a champion for a healthy ocean. In May 2023, Jono smashed the New Zealand record for the longest, unassisted, continuous open-water swim – swimming almost 100kms non-stop, no wetsuit, from Karaka Bay, Aotea Great Barrier Island to Campbells Bay, Auckland. It was a Swim4TheGulf; a swim done in partnership with Live Ocean to raise awareness for the declining health of Tīkapa Moana, the Hauraki Gulf.
Before then Jono had already knocked off the New Zealand Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming – made up of Cook Strait, Lake Taupō, and Foveaux Strait – one of only 14 to have done so.
He lives in Auckland with his wife and young daughter.
Live Ocean is a marine conservation foundation committed to scaling up action for the ocean. Founded by sailors and ocean champions, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, the foundation scales up marine science, innovation and outreach to connect and ignite people around the role a healthy ocean plays in a healthy future.
Live Ocean partners with exceptional New Zealand marine scientists, innovators and communicators whose work has global implications for the protection of the ocean and the life in it. To have a healthy future, we must have a healthy ocean.
We’re on a mission to create 1,000 postcards to protect the Hauraki Gulf and we need your help.
Send us your favourite ocean photo and a few words about what you love most about the Gulf, and together, we’ll spotlight why the Gulf deserves urgent protection – for us, and for future generations.