Fish & Game Campaign a Wild Success

Fish & Game is dedicated to protecting, conserving and rewilding New Zealand’s natural habitats.

From our pristine wetlands and waterways, to the protection and management of vulnerable species, we work hard to promote and safeguard our country’s natural heritage.

We believe that everyone should have access to New Zealand’s fish and game resources, from anglers and hunters, to nature-lovers and conservationists. What we do is good for nature, and good for Kiwis’ mental health.

This is why we’ve been running our ‘ReWild’ campaign, which has seen us engage with more New Zealanders than ever before, seeking to hook them on the experience of freshwater fishing and game bird hunting.

Since launching ReWild at the start of November 2023, with the help of the incredible Dame Lynda Topp, we have spread our message far and wide, reaching over one million Kiwis across social media, YouTube and leading media outlets; our ReWild messaging has been seen a total of 10.9 million times.

We wanted to not only reach but engage our audience and encourage them to ReWild themselves. We gained over 18,000 interactions on social media, including photos and stories of Kiwis out enjoying our wild places, as well as a 21 per cent increase in followers on our social media channels. There has been strong support from the angling and hunting community, who have continued to share our messaging throughout the last six months to their own followers and networks.  

So, why did we do it?

We want to build public support for, and further embed, fishing and hunting as part of who we are as a nation into the future. 

While we have an engaged and thriving community, not everyone shares our passion or understands what we do, and the campaign aims to bring more people into fishing and hunting, understand what we do for the environment, and strengthen our social licence as a result. 

The campaign also aims to unite the country’s fishing and hunting sectors to be a stronger, more cohesive, and consistent voice.

We’re focused on raising awareness of the organisation and the work we do, including species management and environment protection work, and build public support for our this and ultimately our organisation.

Fish & Game strives to make New Zealand a better place, for both nature and people. We are encouraging the public to ‘ReWild’ themselves and join us in understanding and protecting the incredible things that make our country so special – from its landscapes and abundant fish and game resources, to our waterways, vulnerable species and amazing ecosystems.

We’re continuing to push ReWild so please continue to support this initiative by sharing our social media posts and sending us your photos and stories to [email protected].

These are the winners so far from our Wild your Kai competition which ran during game bird hunting season, with one draw to go and the overall winner to come. We received over 200 entries which were of incredible quality and showed what a great experience game bird hunting is for people of all walks of life.

This picture was taken by Hayden Roberts from Leeston in Canterbury of his daughter, Lilliana. She is pictured here looking proud of some early birds shot at a small pond near home, with some handy assistance from Labrador Beau. A little bird told us it was it was "duck nuggets" for dinner!

Photo by Nigel Williams of Napier featuring his son in law. Enjoying a well-deserved cold one after a big day duck hutting, Nick is pictured here feeling the warmth of the fire along with tired Olive the lab. they reported a successful day shooting, managing to harvest 15 ducks and camping out overnight for the first time!

Lindsay Sandri (Te Anau) won with this picture of his daughters, Kenzie (5) and Harper (7) who are all about getting out and hunting and gathering with their dad, be it deer, pigs or waterfowl. they even helped rebuild the maimai last summer and had been begging to go for a hunt ever since! Lindsay says it's a challenge setting up a kids-friendly hunt but worth it. Plenty of warm clothes and hot milos!
(Editors note: Dad was just out of shot, closely supervising handling of the firearm which was unload with action opened.)