Photo of Lewis Pugh, courtesy by Ben Brown. Article courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
Lewis Pugh will come to San Francisco next week to give speeches and meet a number of individuals.
The United Nations Patron of the Oceans has been trying to get the Ross Sea set aside as a Marine Protected Area. The organisation responsible for protecting the waters off Antarctica is called CCAMLR.
CCAMLR or the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources has 25 members including the European Union, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA, and Uruguay.
“All the countries have agreed to the Marine Protected Area – except Russia,” explains Pugh. “They have vetoed it for 4 years in a row.”
But Pugh was able to have constructive meetings with top-level Russian government officials in Moscow to move the conservation initiative forward. “That’s the power of sport. I have no agenda other than caring deeply about the environment and peace.”
Copyright © 2015 by World Open Water Swimming Association