How and why did this bloke almost win NZ’s Fish of the Year 2026?

The Northland Mudfish may have taken out top spot in this year’s Fish of the Year competition - but a Kiwi man sitting in fifth place has grabbed our attention.

Jono Ridler is a keen ultra-marathon swimmer, usually tackling lengthy open swims of over 20 kilometres!

He finished the competition sitting just behind the Northland Mudfish (1st), Long Fin Eel (2nd), Whale Shark (3rd), and Big Belly Seahorse (4th) - and honestly, after finding out more about his achievements, it makes sense why he’s up there with all the marine life.

He was the seventh person ever to complete New Zealand’s Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming and the first to swim to the Poor Knights Islands and back.

In 2023, he completed a record-breaking 100km unassisted ocean swim from Great Barrier Island to Auckland.

This year, he began a 1,400km swim from North Cape to Wellington - aiming to set a new world record.

Since January, Ridler has swum a whopping 1,121km along the east coast of the North Island in 73 days. At the time of writing, he has reached Flat Point with just 245km to go.

He is estimated to finish the big swim around the 90-day mark.

Ridler isn’t just doing it for funsies, though; he’s got a deeper cause to care about - literally.

The whole aim of his huge swim is to call 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.

Bottom trawling is an industrial fishing method that drags heavy, weighted nets across the seafloor to catch bottom-dwelling fish like hoki, orange roughy, and snapper. It’s known to damage seabed habitats and release carbon into the ocean of our flippered friends.

He’s already gained a whopping 30,596 signatures in support, and counting.

He’s doing some incredible work, and it’s paying off - not only because he made the list of top sea swimmers, but also by spreading more awareness around them, too.