Black Foils win SailGP Impact League honours for contribution to ocean advocacy
by Black Foils 21 Jul 20:01 NZST
Jono Ridler - 90 day - Swim4The Ocean - East Coast North Island, NZ - January-April 2026 © Joshua McCormack
New Zealand’s Black Foils have won the Better Planet award in SailGP’s global Impact League, recognising their contribution to a New Zealand campaign to end bottom trawling and the record-breaking swim by Jono Ridler that drove it.
The award lands as the Black Foils race at the Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix in Portsmouth this weekend, the start of their European leg.
Swim4TheOcean was ultramarathon swimmer Jono Ridler's unprecedented 1,367-kilometre staged swim down the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. After 90 days and 468 hours in the water, without a wetsuit, he reached Wellington on 4 April and walked to Parliament.
Run by Live Ocean, the marine conservation foundation founded by Black Foils co-CEOs Blair Tuke and Peter Burling, the initiative calls for an end to bottom trawling on seamounts and a phased transition away from the destructive fishing practice entirely. Sea mountains are some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet and a single pass of a trawl net can decimate coral that took centuries to grow. New Zealand is now the only country still bottom trawling seamounts in the South Pacific high seas.
Tuke was a driving force helping conceive the campaign, guiding the complex logistical operation, and leading the advocacy effort, taking the 73,647-signature petition to Parliament along with Ridler. He and other team members swam support stretches, and in June the Black Foils co-hosted Live Ocean’s annual Winter Dip at Takapuna Beach, where around 800 supporters joined, the biggest group turnout yet.
Live Ocean puts the campaign’s media reach at 390 million across more than 400 news stories. An independent poll in April put public support for limiting bottom trawling at 90%, with 47% of New Zealanders now calling it the greatest threat to the marine environment, up from 37% in 2024.
The award takes the Black Foils to the top of the 2026 Impact League leaderboard, which scores every SailGP team on the positive environmental and social impact they create off the water, run alongside the racing.
Blair Tuke, Black Foils co-CEO and Live Ocean co-founder, said: “What Jono did is one of the greatest endurance feats of all time, but this was always more than just a swim, it was a platform to create change. Swim4TheOcean was one of the most challenging and rewarding projects I’ve ever been involved in and I’m so proud of what was achieved. We saw New Zealanders really come around this with a snowball of support, giving us a powerful platform to drive positive action for the ocean.”
Rosalie Nelson, Chief Executive of Live Ocean, said: “Jono’s swim shifted bottom trawling into the national conversation. New Zealand is guardian of the 4th largest ocean space on the planet, but less than half a percent is fully protected and we're still trawling on seamounts in our own waters and the South Pacific high seas. Recognition like this award helps keep it in front of New Zealanders. But the job isn’t done until the transition away from bottom trawling is underway.”