Branded “Swim4TheOcean”, the unassisted staged swim is a 90-day test of human endurance, but it is also a deliberately structured advocacy campaign, designed to apply pressure on policymakers to accelerate the end of bottom trawling in New Zealand waters .

“This is about igniting New Zealanders around the race for a healthy ocean,” Ridler said as he set out. “If people support this, put your name to the call to end bottom trawling. That’s what will power me through when things get tough”.

Endurance as Infrastructure

Ridler’s attempt is governed by the rules of the Marathon Swimmers Federation. He swims without a wetsuit, wearing only togs, goggles and a cap, completing long rotating swim shifts dictated entirely by tides, currents and weather. Each exit point is GPS-logged, with the next swim restarting from the exact same location.

Within the first three days, Ridler logged 40.7 kilometres, progress earned through heavy swell, cross-currents and repeated bouts of seasickness. “Day one was pretty tricky,” he admitted. “We only managed about three hours out, including revisiting the contents of my stomach about a dozen times”.

As conditions allow, the mission will soon shift into double swim days, including night swims, a necessary escalation if Ridler is to maintain momentum over the planned 120+ rest stops and six major community stopovers along the route.

A Strategic Partnership with a Policy Endgame

The swim is delivered in partnership with Live Ocean, the marine conservation foundation founded by champion sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. For Live Ocean, Swim4TheOcean is not an awareness stunt but a calculated policy intervention.

“We know sport can be an incredible platform for bringing people around issues, a catalytic moment for change,” Burling explained. “As guardians of the fourth-largest ocean space on the planet, we think New Zealand can and should do better. There’s no place for destructive practices in a healthy ocean”.

Crucially, Live Ocean is measuring impact. Baseline public-attitude data collected in 2023 will be compared with a post-swim survey to assess whether public understanding of ocean health, and support for reform, has materially shifted.

That approach is informed by precedent. A previous Ridler-Live Ocean collaboration in 2023 helped catalyse new marine protections for the Hauraki Gulf, with both organisations explicitly referenced by New Zealand’s Minister of Conservation during the legislative process.

The Policy Target: Ending Bottom Trawling

At the heart of the campaign is a clear demand: an end to bottom trawling on seamounts and vital marine ecosystems by 2027, and a rapid transition away from the practice altogether.

“Bottom trawling is a last-century fishing method,” Ridler said. “It causes long-lasting damage and prevents ecosystems from recovering. Stopping it will allow the ocean to do what it does best, support life and help mitigate climate change without unnecessary carbon release”.

From a governance perspective, the argument is increasingly difficult to ignore. Seafloor disturbance releases stored carbon, undermines biodiversity and erodes long-term economic resilience, directly contradicting national climate and sustainability commitments.

Communities, Capital and the Long View

The swim is designed to be deeply public. Coastal communities will host Ridler more than 120 times as he comes ashore, transforming the route into a rolling national conversation about ocean stewardship.

That grassroots engagement is reinforced by institutional backing. Swim4TheOcean is supported by Platinum sponsor TMNZ, alongside APL, Forsyth Barr, Generate KiwiSaver and StabiX, partners using the mission to align commercial credibility with long-term environmental value.

For Ridler, success is not defined by kilometres or records.

“My idea of success,” he said, “is that we’re the first generation to say, ‘do you remember how bad it used to be?’ instead of lamenting how good it once was. That would be the mark of a life well lived”.

In that sense “The Long Game” is not the swim itself , but whether sport, used deliberately and intelligently, can still bend the arc of environmental governance in the right direction.