Photos courtesy of Kelvin Trautman, English Channel, UK.
Lewis Pugh‘s latest challenge, The Long Swim, will start on July 12th. A preview of The Long Swim will be broadcast on Sky News in the UK on Monday July 9th at 8:30 pm.
His 560 km stage swim across the length of the English Channel from Land’s End in Cornwall to Dover in Kent, is part of the Action for Oceans campaign. The purpose of the possibly 50-day stage swim is to encourage government leaders to better protect British waters and ultimately protect at least 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.
The 48-year0old Pugh explains his swim campaign is to swim with people and to conduct beach clean-ups organized by Surfers Against Sewage. “Only 7 square km (2.7 square miles) of the 750,000 square km (290,000 square miles) of UK coastal waters are currently fully protected which is shocking. I am swimming the length of the English Channel to call on the British government to urgently protect the waters that surround the UK. It has been shown that fully protected marine protected areas give distressed and degraded seas their best chance of recovery.”
Pugh plans to swim an average of 5 hours per day, hoping for daily distances between 10 – 20 km, but he acknowledges that there will be days where he will not be allowed to swim due to poor and unsafe conditions.
Pugh is swimsourcing his Channel swim. “I want politicians, mums, children, businessmen and women, anyone to join me for any section of the swim. There is nothing better than seeing the impact of our wrongdoing with your own two eyes.”
The Channel Swimming Association will observe and verify the swim with Daily Swim Reports to be posted in the Daily News of Open Water Swimming.
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