Jennifer Shulzitski (a.k.a. Slime), 50, and Jonathon Rowe-Visser, 45, appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday.
Both pleaded guilty to trespass, and Shulzitski admitted an additional charge of refusing to provide a DNA sample.
The court heard that on August 23, the pair arrived at a fishing boat, Talley’s Amaltal Columbia, in Nelson by dinghy.
Rowe-Visser climbed on to the vessel and workers on board intervened and waited for police to arrive.
Shulzitski used abseiling gear to attach herself to a boom on the stern of the vessel with a sign that read: "ocean killers".
She ignored repeated police orders to come down and was hanging from the boat for about two hours.
Yesterday, counsel William Mohammed told the court his clients were "model citizens of our country".
"While we have been a nation of leaders, there has been one issue where we significantly fall behind and that is the issue of bottom trawling," he said.
"Their action was motivated solely by the need to bring attention to this issue."
He argued the duo should be convicted and discharged, and that any further penalty would be "manifestly excessive".
Community magistrate Sally O’Brien agreed, and noted the character references she had regarding the defendants showed they were both of "impeccable character".
"There was no harm, no property damage done."
In 2022, Shulzitski ran for the ORC as "Slime the Nitrate Monster" and fronted a satirical campaign in a green monster costume.
"We must continue to expand the use of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser to grow more grass to feed more cows to irrigate more land to dry out more rivers to burn more coal to make more milk powder to grow more glorious green slime in our rivers and lakes," she said before the 2022 election.
She came 15th of 15 candidates.
