Huge milestone as NZ's Hauraki Gulf Marine Protection Bill passes into law
by Jodie Bakewell-White - Live Ocean Racing 7 Oct 2025 18:46 NZDT
Live Ocean was formed five years ago by Peter Burling and Blair Tuke and has supported 17 marine conservation projects © Felix Diemer/SailGP
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, champion sailors and co-founders of Live Ocean, are calling the passing of the Hauraki Gulf Tikapa Moana Marine Protection Bill a huge milestone for the Gulf.
The measure has been a focus of the three-time America's Cup winners, multiple Olympic medallists, and top SailGP sailors, who co-founded the Live Ocean marine conservation organisation five years ago. Live Ocean has invested $3.5 million into supporting 17 Marine conservation projects.
Highlighting the Gulf’s uniqueness and its rich biodiversity has been a key focus for Live Ocean since its inception, and the pair are delighted that the area will have greater protection with the introduction of this long-awaited Bill.
“The government’s passing of the Hauraki Gulf Tikapa Moana Marine Protection Bill is a huge milestone for the Gulf and a moment to celebrate. There’s plenty more work to do to look after this beautiful bit of ocean, but this moves us closer to restoring the health of one of New Zealand’s most precious marine areas. I’m really looking forward to seeing those ecosystems start to thrive with the pressure taken off,” says Blair Tuke, Co-founder Live Ocean.
“It’s been a long time coming and a huge amount of work from many people and different areas of the community. I’d like to acknowledge and congratulate everyone who has played a part,” he says.
Peter Burling adds, “The Hauraki Gulf Marine Protection Bill is an amazing first step. For me it’s not the complete solution, but it’s a really strong step towards looking after more areas in marine protection and protecting the seafloor.”
“New Zealand’s ocean space is the 4th largest on the planet, yet less than 1% of that is currently protected, so we have much further to go to protect more of the coastal and deep ocean ecosystems we are guardians of. I hope this can inspire us to think about greater marine protection beyond the Gulf.”
Live Ocean’s push to raise awareness has been through engaging initiatives like Swim4TheGulf in 2023 when open-water swimmer Jono Ridler swum 33 hours, non-stop from Aotea Great Barrier to Campbells Bay, Auckland to draw attention to the declining state of the Gulf.
Joining forces with the Black Foils, New Zealand SailGP team, in June this year Live Ocean collaborated on Foil4TheGulf creating New Zealand’s largest foiling event ever calling for the stalled Bill to progress.
Live Ocean works to scale up science, innovation and outreach for a healthy ocean, and that includes science partners working in the Gulf on the likes of kelp forest restoration, innovators working on the Caulerpa response, and researchers working to understand our unique population of oceanic manta.
“We’ve been warned for decades of the degradation. People have spoken about it, and we’ve seen it with our own eyes. This is a huge moment for us all – it’s going to give the Gulf a chance to recover, to breathe again and to restore the life that used to be here,” says Hannah Prior, Live Ocean's Impact Director.
Burling and Tuke founded Live Ocean, the marine conservation organisation that backs science, innovation and outreach for a healthy ocean more than five years ago.
For more on Live Ocean liveocean.org
To view the projects supported by Live Ocean Foundation liveocean.org/projects
To donate to the Live Ocean Foundation liveocean.org/donate