Cape Town - He has swum the freezing waters of the North Pole, as well as the Thames River during drought – and, in 2006, he became the first swimmer to do long-distance swims in all five oceans of the world.
Now extreme swimmer and environ-mental campaigner Lewis Pugh is about to embark on his most ambitious challenge yet – a feat which has not been done by anyone else – and which will push his personal boundaries like never before.
Pugh, who recently launched a new book, 21 Yaks and a Speedo, will head off on an expedition in about six months which will keep him out at sea for at least three years.
The trip, expected to kick off in January next year, will be aimed at campaigning for protected national parks in all the world’s oceans.
Kicking off in Plymouth, in the UK, where Pugh grew up, the expedition will take him to the Galapagos Islands, the Great Barrier Reef, the Red Sea and other areas.
It will, naturally, involve a daunting physical feat – but that is all Pugh is saying at this stage.
“Watch this space,” the adventurer said in an interview with Weekend Argus, adding that a further announcement would be made, in conjunction with British Prime Minister David Cameron, later this year.
“I am an ocean advocate. I want to use whatever method is best to campaign for the world’s oceans – whether it be swimming, kayaking, walking or climbing… but I am not saying what the next expedition will involve,” he said.
Pugh, a former maritime lawyer and one-time member of the SAS, is famous for his swims aimed at drawing attention to the plight of threatened ecosystems.
He lives between Cape Town and London and, in between planning major expeditions, works as a motivational public speaker and ambassador for environmental awareness.
Considered to be the greatest cold-water swimmer in history, Pugh is able to perform anticipatory thermogenesis – the mental generation of heat in the body – ahead of an event. Renowned sports doctor Professor Tim Noakes first documented how Pugh’s core body temperature rises before he gets into cold water.
Expanding on his next challenge, Pugh said the end goal would be to create “the biggest protected national parks in the world” in the oceans.
“Think of the Kruger National Park, the Serengeti and the Yellowstone park. We created these terrestrial national parks about a hundred years ago, but what about our oceans?
“We have got to look after them too – and we do not have a lot of time to do it. The oceans are changing quicker than you can ever imagine. My next expedition will draw attention to this enormous issue.
“The changes we are seeing in the oceans are happening so quickly,” Pugh continued.
“Taking the Table Bay area as an example, in 1900 we had between three and four million African penguins, but we are now down to 60 000. In any one oil spill you can quite easily lose 40 000 penguins.
“It may seem like an impossible task. How on earth are you going to be able to protect the oceans from overfishing and from runaway climate change? When you start looking at the science of it, it starts to become very overwhelming.”
Pugh said his next mission would take him to “all the different areas in the world’s oceans which are under threat”.
“It is an enormous expedition. My mission will be to try and persuade the governments of each area to declare a national park.
“Some of them are already national parks, but the essence of a marine protected area is it needs to be protected. That is the key.
“For example, South Africa has declared a marine protected area of the Prince Edward Islands, halfway between here and Antarctica, which is all well and good, but it also has to be protected.
“If your navy can’t go down there and actually protect the area – or you don’t have satellite tracking ability then it is like having a law about speeding but no traffic cops to enforce it. Everyone is just going to carry on the way they are.”
On South Africa’s unique coastal control crisis – the subject of much media attention in recent months – he said: “There are fisheries patrol vessels sitting in Simon’s Town harbour and not being used when this marine protection is really needed.”
The world’s oceans, Pugh continued, were challenged by three things – overfishing, climate change and pollution.
“Have you ever seen plastic islands?”
“The northernmost part of Norway is an island called Svalbard. It is totally remote and absolutely beautiful. There is a community made up mainly of scientists there. Walk on those beaches and what do you see? Plastic. I have seen polar bears walking over plastic just to get into the sea.
“The north Atlantic drift is taking the plastic all the way across the Atlantic into the Arctic Ocean and dumping it on the beaches there.”
Pugh said the goal for his mission is to see 10 percent of the world’s oceans declared as protected areas.
“Less than one percent is protected at the moment. If we come home after three years and 10 percent of the world’s oceans are protected, we will have done well.”
Human polar bear’s achievements:
l Pugh completed his first Robben Island crossing at the age of 17.
l In 2006, he swam the length of the Thames River (325km) over 21 days to highlight the serious drought in England and global warming. In the same year, Pugh became the first swimmer to do a long-distance swim in each of the five oceans of the world.
l In 2007, he swam the width of the Maldives to draw attention to the effect of climate change on low-lying islands in the world and, in the same year, he swam across the North Pole to highlight the melting of the Arctic sea due to climate change.
l In 2008, Pugh and Robbie Hedgus kayaked across the Arctic Ocean into the polar ice pack to raise awareness of the effects of climate change in the Arctic and around the world.
l In his most recent feat – in May 2010 – Pugh swam 1km across a glacial lake, Lake Pumori, under the summit of Mount Everest in 2ºC water to highlight the melting glaciers in the Himalayas, and to raise awareness of the effects the reduced water supply will have on the region. - Weekend Argus
