Orange Roughy Photo: Mountains to Sea
It might be slow-moving, but the orange roughy holds top spot in the Fish of the Year - for now.
Since voting opened on 1 March, 2300 votes have been cast.
The roughy is fending off a school of challengers, and Fish of the Year spokesperson Kim Jones said its margin has remained steady since voting started.
The competition is organised by Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust, Jones said.
"There's been bird the year, there's been bug of the year. And we thought why not fish of the year?"
Fish however tend to have a lower profile, she said.
"A lot of the time they are out of sight, out of mind because they're underwater.
"So we wanted to use it as an opportunity to really shine a spotlight on them, so that people would hopefully get involved and learn a little bit more about them."
Voting is open until 5pm, 16 March and currently battling it out for second place, is the whale shark and the longfin eel.
This is the first year that the whale shark has been in Fish of the Year, and Not many people even know New Zealand has sharks, Jones said.
"They think of them as being, overseas, in the tropics, but they come down on those warmer currents and quite often around this time of year especially you can encounter them when you're out there, especially in northern New Zealand."
Last year the paketi, or Spotty, took out top spot in the competition that has been running since 2021 and which aims to educate New Zealanders about fresh and saltwater fish and the fragile environments they inhabit.
"We really hope that people learn a little bit more about our fish and learn about some of the threats that they're facing and how people can help address some of those threats to ensure that we've got fish around for generations to come," Jones said.
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