{"id":2190581,"date":"2026-03-30T18:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T16:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2190581"},"modified":"2026-03-27T09:57:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T08:57:19","slug":"dolphins-stingers-and-salt-tongue-an-epic-ocean-swim-around-new-zealands-east-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/dolphins-stingers-and-salt-tongue-an-epic-ocean-swim-around-new-zealands-east-coast\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins, stingers and \u2018salt tongue\u2019: an epic ocean swim around New Zealand\u2019s east coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

F<\/span>irst he hears a faint chatter coming from the ocean depths, then clicks and squeaks as the creatures draw closer. From the murky edges of his goggles they appear, swift and agile, darting within 10cm of his bare outstretched arms and following him for a time, as he swims hundreds of metres off the coast of\u00a0New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Jono Ridler, an ultra-distance swimmer who is 1,254km (779 miles) into his world record attempt for the longest-ever unassisted staged swim, has learned to hear dolphins more than 15 minutes before they reach him and long before his support boats can see them.<\/p>\n

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Ridler has learned to hear dolphins more than 15 minutes before they reach him.\u00a0Photograph: Joshua McCormack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>
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It is the type of knowledge of another species one can only achieve through spending hundreds of hours in their habitat. Ridler says he can now tell a small pod from a super pod at distance and can sense when they are about to reveal themselves.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThen they are just rushing beneath me, huge amounts of energy,\u201d says the 36-year-old as he takes a break on the Wairarapa coast, three hours drive north of Wellington.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can really sense their intelligence when you\u2019re in the water with them \u2026 there is a lot of value and connection that we can draw from the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

That connection, and Ridler\u2019s desire to raise awareness about the threats facing the ocean, has driven him to attempt this unprecedented feat of the longest-ever unassisted staged swim.<\/p>\n

An \u201cunassisted\u201d swim means he must only wear swimming shorts, a cap and goggles, and \u201cstaged\u201d means he takes breaks on land but returns to swim from where he left off. Two assist boats follow him, providing food and water, and tracking his progress.<\/p>\n

Ridler began his roughly 1,350km Swim4TheOcean campaign at the northern tip of New Zealand\u2019s North Island on 5 January and aims to swim the length of the east coast.<\/p>\n

Depending on the conditions, he swims two six-hour stints a day, five days in a row before taking a rest day. He has clocked 428 hours in the water and swum the equivalent of 49 Cook Strait crossings, or39 English Channel crossings.<\/p>\n

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Ridler has battled swarms of stinging jellyfish, sunburn,\u00a0salt tongue, fatigue and hypothermia. He says it is physically gruelling as much as it is isolating and monotonous.<\/p>\n

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Two assist boats follow Ridler, providing food and water, and tracking his progress.\u00a0Photograph: Joshua McCormack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>
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\u201cIt can be quite lonely being in your own head for a long period of time \u2013 it\u2019s an important thing to try and manage,\u201d he says, adding he has developed meditative coping methods.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do a lot of counting and following my breath, creating a pattern with my breathing. It almost becomes kind of musical.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is also difficult being away from his wife, Sarah, and two-year-old daughter Georgie, who live in Auckland.<\/p>\n

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Ridler is attempting to swim the entire length of the east coast of New Zealand\u2019s North Island.\u00a0Photograph: Joshua McCormack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>
<\/figcaption>\u201c[Sarah] has made a big personal sacrifice to make it all happen \u2013 it wouldn\u2019t be possible without what she is doing,\u201d he says.<\/figure>\n

Ridler is working with Live Ocean, a marine conservation charity founded by sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. The charity is live-tracking his progress. He swims between 18km and 30km a day. Tuke says the scale of Ridler\u2019s efforts are \u201chard to fully grasp\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just there, stroke after stroke, minute after minute, hour after hour. It\u2019s relentless,\u201d Tuke said.<\/p>\n

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Ridler swims between 18km and 30km a day on his ultra swim.\u00a0Photograph: Joshua McCormack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>
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\u201cBut there\u2019s something pretty special about it too. The power of what he\u2019s doing, and the message he\u2019s carrying with him. When you see that in person, it\u2019s pretty hard to put into words,\u201d Tuke said.<\/p>\n

It is an astonishingly taxing endeavour to sign oneself up for, but for Ridler, it was decades in the making.<\/p>\n

\u2018Drawing people into the story of the ocean\u2019<\/h2>\n
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Ridler was born and raised in Auckland, where he spent his childhoods swimming, snorkelling and \u201cgetting dumped by waves\u201d.<\/p>\n

His early experiences with the ocean were formative. When he attempted ocean swimming in his early 20s he \u201ccaught the bug\u201d and his distances grew from 5km to 10km marathon swims. In 2019 he swam the Cook Strait, which separates New Zealand\u2019s North and South Islands.<\/p>\n

Spending time in the water meant he could observe the changes he was seeing beneath the surface, particularly in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland. In 2023, he became the first person to swim the 99km from Aotea\/Great Barrier Island to Auckland, to raise awareness about the state of the gulf, which has suffered species decline from pollution, sediment buildup and overfishing.<\/p>\n

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Ridler \u2018caught the bug\u2019 for swimming in his early 20s and his distances grew from 5km to 10km swims.\u00a0Photograph: Joshua McCormack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>
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\u201cThere was this passion for the ocean and desire to want to create change \u2013 and feeling a tugging in me to do that \u2013 that\u2019s really how this current adventure has come about,\u201d Ridler says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s drawing people into the story of the ocean and getting people to really care about the ocean in a new way.\u201d<\/p>\n

His swim comes with a specific call to action \u2013 a petition to ban bottom trawling, in which heavy nets are dragged along the seabed. \u201cThese very fragile ecosystems can take a very long time to grow and if they are wiped through a trawl, it could take centuries for them to recover. It is devastating to see the damage caused for short-term return.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ridler\u2019s efforts have caught attention \u2013 the petition has more than 40,000 signatures, with numbers growing daily. He also managed to secure himself a spot in New Zealand\u2019s fish of the year competition (he came fifth, losing out to a little-known\u00a0Northland mudfish).<\/p>\n

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Ridler\u2019s swim comes with a call to action \u2013 a petition to ban bottom trawling, whereby heavy nets are dragged along the seabed.\u00a0Photograph: Joshua McCormack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>
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In late April, Ridler intends to deliver the petition to parliament in Wellington. But he will need to make the final arduous 111km swim first.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be the hardest part \u2013 the water temperature is dropping every day as we go further south, the conditions get more exposed and the weather is unsettled,\u201d Ridler says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s doable. It\u2019s very doable. And in the next week, we can have it all wrapped up.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article<\/a> by Eva Corlett was first published by The Guardian on 26 March 2026. Lead Image: Ultra-marathon swimmer Jono Ridler has developed meditative coping methods to help with loneliness. Photograph: Joshua McCormack.<\/i><\/p>\n

What you can do<\/h2>\n

Protect wildlife by making a monthly donation as little as $5.<\/em><\/p>\n