This article was featured in the official IMPA publication - Supply Chain and Sustainability Magazine, Issue 2 2024
Endurance swimming and the environment are Lewis Pugh’s two great passions. Felicity Landon talks to the man who completes epic swims in remote and challenging locations, to shine a light on our vulnerable oceans and rivers and why we need to protect them.
If you swim across the North Pole or a glacial lake on Mount Everest, or along the full length of the English Channel or the 507 kms length of the Hudson River, you are going to attract attention to yourself. But that isn’t what matters to Lewis Pugh.
The first person to complete a long-distance swim in every ocean of the world, Lewis is an ocean advocate. His efforts are all about focusing attention on to our beautiful, vulnerable oceans and rivers, highlighting the threats to precious ecosystems, and getting the message across to policymakers and public alike: we must protect our waters (and therefore ourselves) from further catastrophic damage. This, he emphasises, is not about some imagined future. It’s far more urgent.
“People talk about climate change as if it were an issue for our children and grandchildren – but too many lives have been lost already and infrastructure destroyed,” he says. “Leaders only react when there is a groundswell of public opinion. So I urge people – speak to your political leaders, community leaders and religious leaders. Tell them why it is important. Only then will we begin to see the systemic change that is needed to protect our environment.”
The world needs strong leadership, he says. “My message to leaders is: “If you are not taking bold and fast action to protect and restore our planet, you are no longer fit to lead.”
Lewis was appointed the United Nations’ first Patron of the Oceans in 2013 and takes every opportunity to speak out. “My UN role is voluntary but something that I take seriously, to be a voice for the world’s oceans.”
Lewis, 54, was born with a sea view – in Plymouth, where his father was a surgeon in the Royal Navy and his mother was a senior nursing sister. The family emigrated to South Africa when he was 10. When he was 27 and having trained as a maritime lawyer, he returned to the UK to work in London for Ince & Co and then Clyde & Co.
He had discovered his love for swimming at the age of 17, when he did his first major swim – 8 kms from Robben Island to Cape Town. He says his first proper swimming lesson was only a month earlier.
“I barely made it, but I knew right then that I love the sport,” he says. “Cape Town was the best place in the world to become an endurance swimmer. On the Indian Ocean side there is nice warm water. On the Atlantic side the sea can be rough and wild. And in the Southern Ocean the seas are seriously cold.”
In 2003, he travelled to the Arctic and swam 5 kms in 8°C waters around North Cape. “I remember finishing that and realising that I didn’t want to go back to London. It was one of those moments when I came to a fork and had fresh awareness of where I wanted to go.”
He did one swim after another and became the first person in the world to complete a long-distance swim in every ocean of the world.
In 2007 he swam across the North Pole to highlight the melting of the Arctic sea-ice. “I swam across an open patch of sea, and it made world headlines. I had spent several summers in the Arctic and witnessed the enormous changes occurring there.”
He believes people are shaped by geography – as he says, South Africa is where three oceans meet. In reality, he was shaped by history, too. “It was only four days after he started his legal studies at the University of Cape Town that Nelson Mandela was finally freed.
“One of my lecturers had been imprisoned in solitary confinement for a very long time, fighting against apartheid. Others helped to write the new constitution. Every generation has its battles. With the rapid changes that I was witnessing in the oceans, it became clear to me that the defining issue for our generation would be the health of the planet. I swim in remote and vulnerable ecosystems to shine a light and tell a simple story.”
In 2015, Lewis completed a major swim in the Ross Sea off Antarctica. This led to him playing a key role in creating the largest marine reserve in the world. ‘Speedo Diplomacy’ was a term used by the media to describe his efforts of swimming in the Ross Sea and then shuttling between the
US and Russia to help secure Russia’s agreement to the deal. “It took 17 years of negotiations to protect the Ross Sea from rampant overfishing. Twenty-five nations and the EU all agreed to protect it. The last nation which needed to be persuaded was Russia.”
Acting as an environmental diplomat is like being a locksmith, he says. “You can’t keep going to the same locked door with the same set of keys. Every protected part of the world is always a group effort, but ultimately somebody has to unlock it. I had raced against lots of Russians swimmers, and I knew that cold water was a language their leaders would understand. So I undertook a long swim in the Ross Sea, which got lots of media attention in Russia, and then went to Moscow to begin the discussions. Two years later, after many meetings, Russia signed the deal. It was the happiest day of my life.”
About 2,000 people have swum across the English Channel – but until 2018, no one had swum its length. Lewis swam the 528 kms length to call on the UK to properly protect its waters. “At the time, only 7 sq kms of waters were fully protected. In the rest, one could drill for oil or gas, large industrial fishing boats could hoover up all the fish, the Royal Navy can do gunnery exercises, and there’s lots of shipping as well.”
The science is clear, he says. “We need to be protecting at least 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 for them to stand any chance of recovery.” The UK made that commitment – 30 by 30 – a month after he finished his English Channel swim. To date, about 130 nations have agreed to the target. He notes: “There is a vast difference between making the commitment and actually delivering, but it is an awesome step.”
Last year, Lewis became the first person to swim across the Red Sea, completing the 122 kms from Saudi Arabia to Egypt in 16 days. He was overwhelmed by the beauty of the coral reefs he witnessed as he swam above them.
“Coral reefs are so important. They are the nurseries of our oceans. But they are also on the front line. If we continue to heat our planet, they will not survive,” he says. “We have heated the planet by nearly 1.3°C. At 1.5°C, we are expected to lose 70% of the world’s coral. At 2°C, we lose virtually all the world’s coral. Currently we are on track for way past 2°C.”
Everything that is important to us as humans depends on us being able to drink fresh water and breathe fresh air, says Lewis. As he was on his Hudson River swim all the way into New York last year, the world was witnessing floods, droughts and wildfires. “Tell me a country in the world that is not facing the impacts of the climate crisis. The world is hungry for action – we are past the time of words, and we need action.”
His epic swims are certainly punishing – he swims long hours in incredibly challenging conditions each day, eating and sleeping onboard a support vessel at night. After 32 days on the Hudson, his weight had dropped from 93 kgs to 86 kgs.
To keep his extraordinary level of fitness and strength, he does a combination of swimming, kayaking, running and weights, taking just one week off a year. “In order to keep moving, you have to keep moving,” he says. “Swimming is great for physical and mental health. My health is inextricably linked with being in nature.”
In 2024, he will have been the UN Patron of the Oceans for more than a decade. “I will keep on swimming for as long as I can,” he says. “I am here to serve the oceans.”
