He hasn’t hurt anyone. He hasn’t blocked a harbour. He’s just been swimming.
So it came as a shock this morning when Live Ocean confirmed they are aware of threats to Jono’s personal safety — and threats to physically stop him completing the final stretch to Te-Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.
“We are continuing to prioritise Jono’s safety and getting him to Wellington over the next few days,” Live Ocean said, “and are pushing towards the completion of this haerenga with determination.”
Facebook message sent, very
The threats appear to have come from a commercial fishing Facebook group, where a post called on fishermen to intervene and prevent Jono from reaching Wellington. The One Ocean Project shared a screenshot publicly and didn’t hold back.
“Do not attempt to interfere or blockade Live Ocean from reaching Wellington this week,” they wrote. “Threatening Jono like this does nothing to your image and further pits you against the public.”
Police have been notified. One Ocean Project also pointed out they’d spent the week talking with commercial fishermen, trying to set up an open forum to find some common ground. The timing of the threats couldn’t have been worse for that conversation.
“We feel sorry for the genuine good commercial fishermen out there, whose images you are ruining.”
The threats come at a tense moment in New Zealand’s fisheries politics. Just days ago, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones was forced into a significant backdown, pulling a controversial clause from his Fisheries Amendment Bill that would have allowed commercial operators to catch and sell undersized snapper and tarakihi, fish that hadn’t yet reached spawning maturity. The public backlash was swift, and the clause was gone within days.
For some in the commercial sector, that defeat still stings. The Facebook post made no secret of linking Jono’s swim to that political loss, framing his arrival in Wellington as another symbolic win for the other side.
One Ocean Project’s parting shot — asking publicly who the “Minister of Seafood” is — was a deliberate dig. Shane Jones holds the portfolio of Oceans and Fisheries. His job, as the title suggests, is to look after the oceans and the fish stocks within them, not to act as a champion for the commercial seafood industry.
Swim4TheOcean is backed by Live Ocean, the marine conservation charity founded by champion sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. Ridler has already spent more than 420 hours in the ocean and is within days of completing what is on track to become the world’s longest unassisted staged ocean swim.
For now, the team’s focus is on Wellington. Live Ocean is asking for public support as Jono pushes through the final stretch. He’s come 1,350 kilometres to be stopped on the doorstep.
