An ultra-marathon swimmer and environmentalist on a 1600km mission to end bottom trawling met some “cool” marine friends as he swam along Tauranga’s coast.
Jono Ridler, 36, is swimming the length of the North Island’s eastern coast on behalf of Live Ocean, the marine conservation charity founded by champion sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, to call on the New Zealand Government to end bottom trawling at home and on the high seas by the end of 2027.
The 1609km unassisted stage swim is expected to take 90 days to complete.
Ridler was joined in the Bay of Plenty leg of his swim by comrades in arms – a pod of orca, who were seen on camera swimming between Ridler and the shallows of Pāpāmoa Beach shortly after 2pm on Sunday.
He said he had never seen orcas in person before and described the encounter as “pretty cool”.
“I was hoping I might be able to get a swim with them, but they were off chasing stingrays, I think, further down the shore,” he said.
On Thursday, Ridler stopped at Omanu Surf Lifesaving Club and marked the one-month anniversary of his swim, which began at Waikuku Beach, North Cape.
As of this morning, Ridler had completed 572km of his swim, the equivalent of nearly 19 Cook Strait crossings, and has 815.5km to go. He has spent 166 hours and 37 minutes in the water.
He told the Bay of Plenty Times he hoped New Zealand could transition away from bottom trawling entirely by the end of the decade.
More than 9000 people have signed the organisation’s petition and Ridler wanted that number to reach 100,000 signatures by the time he arrived in Wellington.
“We’re not asking for donations or anything like that. It’s three fields to fill out on an online entry for people to show their support for what we’re doing.”
Ridler said he had planned more than 120 rest stops and community stopovers along his journey to engage with people and collect more signatures.
He wanted locals to take away two things from his community visits: hope and the inspiration to act.
“Those are two powerful emotions that can help drive this thing forward.”
Ridler said he lost four days of swimming because of recent weather events, but the plan to complete the swim in 90 days still looked “pretty realistic”.
He said currents and conditions could impact the distance he covered on any given day, and he would take advantage of good conditions while he could. The water had warmed since he began his journey farther north.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen further down the coast.”
Swimming gave Ridler plenty of opportunities for reflection and he said he let his mind wander wherever it wanted.
“Sometimes I’ll just be counting, sometimes I’ll be playing songs in my head, sometimes I’ll be completely empty, thinking about absolutely nothing and just connecting with the ocean.”
The Moana soundtrack received a few plays in Ridler’s mind, especially Jemaine Clement’s Shiny – one of Ridler’s daughter’s favourites.
Ridler is no stranger to ocean swims, having completed a 99km trip non-stop with no wetsuit from Aotea Great Barrier Island to Campbells Bay on Auckland’s North Shore in 2023.
His partnership with Live Ocean, which dated back to 2023, had been critical in gaining support for his cause.
“None of this would happen without Live Ocean’s backing.”
Once Ridler reaches Wellington and completes his mission, he plans to celebrate with a stone-oven margherita pizza.
Supporters can track Ridler’s journey through a live tracker.
Bijou Johnson is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty. A passionate writer and reader, she grew up in Tauranga and developed a love for journalism while exploring various disciplines at university. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies from Massey University.