Swim against plastic pollution

RECORD-BREAKING endurance swimmer, Durban’s Sarah Ferguson, is fighting against plastic pollution and is calling on fellow ocean swimmers to join her at the Ardagh Glass Packaging World Oceans Day Swim on Saturday, June 10.

The swim with a good cause takes place from the Durban Beach Club and offers swimmers the option of distances ranging from 800m, through the traditional mile (1.6km), up to a testing 3.2km and the even longer 5km distance.

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Since retiring from international competitions, Ferguson has notched up an impressive list of record-breaking achievements, including the first circumnavigation swim around Easter Island – which earned her a nomination for the 2019 World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year, and in 2017, she became the first African female to swim the 42km Kai’wi Channel between Oahua and Molokai in Hawaii.

However, Ferguson is also an ardent conservationist, and the Ardagh Glass Packaging World Oceans Day Swim brings her two passions together.

“The primary objective of this event is to get swimmers and the public involved in their love of the sport,” said the former South African national team swimmer.

“But I hope it will help swimmers realise they need to do something about protecting the ocean because it has been badly affected by our behaviour,” she said.

Ferguson pointed out that there are three major threats to our oceans: overfishing, climate change and plastic pollution.
She said the reason she focuses on plastic pollution is because, when she started this journey, it was not really being spoken about as much as overfishing and climate change.

Also read: Conservationist urges Durbanites to make a splash for World Oceans Day Swim

“And, it is also very easy to do something about pollution, and so it makes it accessible for everyone to do something. There are also many other threats, such as sewage, seismic drilling and drilling for oil, but plastics are so dangerous for so many reasons.”

The funds raised by the event will exclusively be used for education programmes and projects run by Breathe, a conservation non-profit organisation registered by Ferguson primarily to educate people about oceans and plastic pollution.

Entries for the Ardagh Glass Packaging World Oceans Day Swim are at roag.org, and more information about Breathe can be found at breatheconservation.org.

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