Swimming unassisted means Ridler wears togs rather than a wetsuit, but is permitted to wear earplugs, goggles and a swim cap. He is also followed by a support crew in two boats while swimming.
Ridler is using his effort to draw attention to the effects of bottom trawling on sea life and the health of New Zealand’s oceans in partnership with Blair Tuke and Peter Burling’s Live Ocean charity.
On Monday, Ridler was looking likely to hit the 1000km mark between Mahia Peninsula and Cape Kidnappers, but negative currents stopped him at 996.5km.
Ridler said it was a pretty unreal feeling to have nearly swum quadruple digits.
For his swim in Hawke Bay, Ridler decided to sleep and eat on the open water, going directly from Mahia to Cape Kidnappers using only his support boat for rest – the first time he’s had to do so on this trip.
Doing this saved the crew a 40km transit getting to shore and back.
Ridler said he had seen some amazing sea life while swimming in Hawke Bay.
“All of the salp in the water is amazing, long chains that are all curled in on each other, kind of like a fern frond.
“It’s been probably the best water clarity, except for parts of the Far North, that we’ve had the entire trip. It’s been about 30 metres visibility. I’ve just been able to see so, so far down.”
Hawke Bay’s aquatic locals have been cheering on Ridler as well.
“Out here, there’s so many dolphins and they’re just coming up to me, swimming around me. It’s very, very cool.
“They just want to see what’s up, so they come up to me, they come up to the boat, it’s like they just have a look and then they’re on their way.”
Fortunately, Ridler hadn’t come face to face with any sharks while in Hawke Bay, but he’s had to deal with many jellyfish, particularly lion’s mane jellyfish with “tentacles five metres long”.
“They’re either hanging down, but sometimes they actually flip upside down and their tentacles hang up. So, I’ve had a few lashes.”
But Ridler said a few lashes are nothing compared to the damage bottom trawling is doing to New Zealand’s oceans.
“Bottom trawling on seamounts in particular is very, very damaging, destructive and indiscriminate.
“These deep-sea habitats, they can take centuries to be able to grow ... and you trawl across them, it can take minutes, but it takes centuries to be able to recover.
“In our view, the equation is imbalanced and it’s overly destructive for what we actually get out of it. We need to have more sustainable fishing methods in New Zealand.”
Live tracking of Ridler’s swim can be found on the Live Ocean website.
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.
