Yes, another creature-of-the-year competition – and there’s something fishy going on with this one.

If birds and bugs get to have an annual popularity contest, why not fish? For the last few years, the Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust run Fish of the Year competition has been a relatively niche event, with votes last year reportedly sitting at around the 1,000 mark – barely a shadow on their avian counterparts.

Event spokesperson Kim Jones says that “people really love their fish. Like, really love them.” But which fish? Well, last year the humble pāketi/spottie took the top prize, breaking the stronghold that rays had on the crown from 2021 to 2023.

Voting for this year’s competition opened on Saturday, coinciding with the start of SeaWeek. Unlike the Bird of the Year and Bug of the Year contestant lists, many of the fish will be familiar from menu cards at fish and chip joints or the seafood section of the supermarket. When considering which fish to vote for, we urge you to consider more factors than simply “deliciousness”.

Anchovies | Kokowhawha

Though we may most often see them on a fancy pizza, anchovies are an important food source for non-humans like penguins, bigger fish like kahawai, dolphins and seabirds. While alive, they like to spend time in big groups, huddled together as if in a crowd at an underwater festival. Very fun and their eyes are cute too.

Basking sharks | Reremai

What you can see through reremai mouths are not their ribcage but their gill rakers which allow them to eat plankton. Though reremai are the second largest fish in the sea, they have the smallest weight-for-weight brain size of any shark, and they’re slow. In other words, they’re big dummies.

Big-belly seahorse | Manaia

Seahorses are described as “voracious feeders” so perhaps we should not be surprised by their charmingly rounded bellies. Males get an extra big belly in the summer, when their pouch fills up with 300-700 young ones.

Blobfish

Viral for their good looks, blobfish are very unique. They do not have a swim bladder, full skeleton, muscles or scales. Instead their bodies are made from a substance slightly lower in density than water, meaning that when they’re taken out of the depths they essentially collapse.

Blue cod | Rāwaru

Blue cod are bottom-dwelling predators with thick lipped mouths and rotating eyes. It’s not all bad though – their scales have a lovely dark blue iridescence and look a bit like a butterfly wing.

Blue maomao

When young, blue maomao are not blue yet but grey with a yellow anal fin. As they grow bigger, they become blue and lose the yellow. Talk about making Powerade from lemons.

Blue-eyed triplefin | Ruanoho

This gorgeous little creature is so stylish it may as well be French. That perfect shade of blue, in combination with red stripes and frankly crazed pupils is a dead giveaway that it’s been on one too many boats around the Belle-Île-en-Mer. (Please note, this is only a fashion analysis. Science says that ruanoho stay around rocky reefs in the waters of the North Island).

Butterfish | Mararī

The punk of the ocean, mararī, intimidates with its impressive mohawk, but chat to the fish for ten seconds and you will realise it’s really a big softy who cares about climate change, social justice and vintage bass guitars. Sadly, mararī live in kelp which is being ravaged by kina barrens.

Canterbury Mudfish | Kōwaro

These freshwater fish are not eels, though they are long and have thick slippery skin with no scales. They can be motley and orange and up to 17.5cm long. Charming.

Conger eel | Ngoiro

May I remind you that the Fish of the Year competition is not a beauty pageant. We must judge fish on their fishy qualities. Ngoiro are excellent predators, and can grow to weigh up to 16kg. They also live in the sea. I may be staying away for now.

Crested weedfish

Hmmm. They insist there’s a fish there, but all I see is kelp.

Flounder | Pātiki tōtara

If you have both your eyes on one side of your head you would probably hide in the sand too.

Giant bully | Tīpokopoko

It is impossible to distinguish the giant bully from the common bully unless you count the number of spines in the first dorsal fin, which are hard to spot. Tīpokopoko will not have an easy campaign.

Goatfish | Āhuruhuru

Āhuruhuru may look like they spend a long time grooming their goatees, but in fact those two protrusions are barbels (fleshy projections) which they use to detect prey hiding in sand. They gulp up their food along with a fair bit of sand which is then expelled through their gills. Like chameleons, goat fish can change colours and patterns.

Great white shark | Mangō taniwha

Honestly I just don’t see it happening for our toothy friends this year. That’s not to say they don’t deserve it – mangō taniwha are super-predators that can grow as long as half a bus. They use the Earth’s magnetic field to navigate long distances and they can swim up to 50km per hour.

Hāpuku

Hāpuku can get huuuuuge, as heavy as 100kg. They have 10 dorsal spines, rounded anal and pectoral fins and powerful, square-shaped tails. How beautiful.

Kelpfish | Hiwihiwi

The expertly camouflaged hiwihiwi take kelp and seaweedy rocks as their fashion inspiration. It is possible that snorkellers are the next trend as hiwihiwi often perch on a rock and watch them pass by, or even swim up for a closer look.

Īnanga

These tiny fishes look like silvery glass noodles in our streams and rivers. They have a buzzy lifecycle: eggs are laid on the banks for rivers, then larvae are carried downstream to the sea and after six months of feeding on plankton in coastal waters they migrate into rivers and streams where they grow into adult fish (unless they become a fritter first).

John dory | Kuparu

John is a real spiky fella with a false eye.

Kahawai

Just a fish that really looks like, well, a fish.

Kōaro

Kōaro can climb up vertical waterfalls thanks to their broad fins that have a grippy texture underneath. They have a similar lifecycle to īnanga and can become part of a whitebait fritter before they get the chance to climb.

Lamprey | Piharau/kanakana

Again, please remember this competition is not about looks. Piharau are ancient fish, they’ve existed for more than 360 million years so I think we can call them a living fossil. They live in freshwater but are more closely related to sharks and stingrays than eels. 

Leatherjacket | Kokiri

Kokiri can swim backwards and have a retractable dorsal spine. This spine is triggerlike and can be locked into a vertical position – this is a problem for predators hoping to swallow easily. Kokiri also have a tiny little mouth.

Longfin eel | Tuna

These beasts need no introduction. One fun fact you might not know is that they can be attracted by breaking a raw egg into a river.

Orange roughy

These little bottom dwellers live longer than humans – over 200 years. As a small, long-lived, deep-sea beryciform fish, orange roughies are part of the slimehead family, named for the network of muciferous (slime) canals riddling their heads. Sadly, we’ve fished them terribly and some fisheries scientists worry the species is in collapse. Poor little slimeheads.

Red pigfish | Paakurakura

A pig only by name, paakurakura have lovely snouts and are permanently blushing.

Porcupine fish | Kōpūtōtara

This is not a puffer fish, it’s much cuter, omg soooo cute. Its little happy face is what you imagine your best friend’s baby to look like until you meet it and it’s crying.

Red gurnard | Kumukumu

I confess that once I threw a line over the side of a boat, felt tugging, reeled it in and there was a kumukumu. Surprisingly, it was barking like a little dog.

Red moki | Nanua

Mmmm more thick lips. All the better to eat crabs and chitons and other things that live under rocks.

Redfin bully

A small and stocky freshwater fish that loves to eat a fly or two. Their big fins are rather beautiful and lace-like.

Olive rockfish | Taumaka

A little goth that likes hanging out in estuaries, taumaka are able to stay out of water for long periods of time, sheltering under nothing but a moist boulder wearing a protective mucus coating, waiting for the tide to return.

Sandager’s wrasse | Tāngahangaha

Tāngahangaha are one of those species where the male knows to dress up. It’s far more colourful than the female and has distinctive bands. The males seal themselves inside a nest chamber with the eggs, guarding and cleaning them until they hatch.

School shark | Tupere / kapetā

The tupere is on several seafood red lists around the place. They’re not scary when you really look at them. The truth is despite sharks’ reputation, it’s us killing the sharks, not the other way around.

Short tail stingray | Whai

Ah so this is how we find out the answer to the proverbial question – is a stingray a fish? Whai yes, yes it is.

Shortjaw kōkopu

Their fetching overbite means shortjaw kōkopu can graze on insects from rocks in a stream. They’re another species we eat as whitebait, so you can always give them a guilt-vote.

Snapper | Tāmure

To appreciate the beauty of a snapper, one really needs to see it alive and swimming underwater rather than on ice at the supermarket. It’s so shiny and has such lovely blue polka dots. To do list: go snorkelling.

Southern bluefin tuna

Have you seen the shape of that tail? Positively divine.

Spine-tailed devil ray | Whai rahi

Spinetail devil rays are rarely seen alone so it’s safe to assume they’re sensitive, needy socialites. They grow up to 3.2 meters across and can weigh up to 300kg – much smaller than their larger oceanic manta cousins and so are sometimes called “mini mantas”.

Spotty | Paketi, pakirikiri

It’s a fish with a side-spot.

Spotted stargazer | Pūwhara

It’s hard to believe this mooshed up neck and bulldog-like face is real and not an invention of Studio Ghibli. Pūwhara spend most of their lives buried and camouflaged in sand and mud, but use a chin-mounted barbel on the chin and a filamentous appendage inside the lower jaw as wriggling lures to attract a feed.

Torrent fish | Panoko

This fish loves a little bit of white water in a stream, perhaps the water reflects its inner turmoil.

Trevally | Araara

Fishers know trevally as strong fighters, and a little dry to eat.

Whale shark

Whale Sharks are currently the biggest fish gracing our oceans. The largest one humans officially know about was 18.8 meters long – about the length of a cricket pitch. They almost exclusively eat plankton and small fishes, so there’s no reason for a human to fear them. Each whale shark has a unique pattern of spots and stripes, like a finger print. 

Yellowfin kingfish | Haku

Kingi are extremely sought-after by recreational fishers, probably because they get so big – up to 2.5 metres long. When they’re smaller, fishers call them “rats” which is rather mean as they are a beautiful fish with distinct green and white colours and yellow tails. 

Voting for Fish of the Year is open now until March 16. The winner will be announced on March 17.