Fish of the Year 2026
28 February 2026 - 15 March 2026
Region(s): Nationwide
Type(s): competitions
Take part in the annual Fish of the Year | Te Ika o Te Tau competition run by the Mountains to Sea charity – aiming to raise awareness for some of the issues our awesome ika face and teach people about the incredible biodiversity in our freshwater and marine environments.
There are prizes for the Fish of the Year colouring in competition, click the images to download a high resolution PDF. Which you can either print or colour in digitally. Send in a photo of your colouring-in sheet to go in the draw to win some jaw-some Fish of the Year prizes! For more information on the colouring competition and other resources, visit www.mountainstosea.org.nz/fish-of-the-year-resources.
In 2025 the winner was the blobfish, (which 2013 was declared the world's ugliest animal) – who will it be this year? Meet the nominees and vote here: www.mountainstosea.org.nz/fish-of-the-year.
Vote for your three favourite fish by 15 March 2026.
Follow Mountains to Sea on their social media channels:
Native freshwater fish
Meet some of our New Zealand native freshwater fish and learn more about them and their preferred habitats.
Click on the name of the fish or group of fish to learn more.
Related content
Explore our varied resources on New Zealand's freshwater fish – note that many of these resources are in both te reo Māori and English.
Use the Spyfish Aotearoa citizen science project to discover, count and identify fish species that live within our marine reserves.
Explore the range of our marine science resources in Investigating life in the sea – introduction.
In the article Under the sea, explore the various survey methods used by students, scientists and iwi in the Reef Life project.
Further explore the range of resources we have under our fish and freshwater topics.
Activity ideas
We have a variety of activities to help students to get involved in marine science. These include Build a marine food web, Making and using a quadrat, Hiding in plain sight and Introducing biodiversity.
Department of Conservation marine infographics
We teamed up with the Department of Conservation to host marine infographics that illustrate and explain key science ideas surrounding habitats, biodiversity and establishing special reserves:
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