Conservationist urges Durbanites to make a splash for World Oceans Day Swim
The funds raised by the event will be used to educate people about the oceans and plastic pollution.
DURBAN North resident Sarah Ferguson is the driving force behind this year’s Ardagh Glass Packaging World Oceans Day Swim.
On the surface, the World Oceans Day Swim on June 10 is simply a long-distance ocean swim, starting and finishing at the Durban Beach Club. Competitors have the option to choose between four distances: 800m, a mile (1.6km), 3.2km or the main event, the 5km swim.
However, the purpose of the event is far more significant than simply an opportunity for sportsmen and women to enjoy their sport.
“The swim is really for ocean lovers to have an event that is going to create awareness for plastic pollution. As a swimmer, I want to raise awareness for my sport, but I also thought it would be fun to offer a longer swim in honour of World Oceans Day and so help create awareness about why we should protect the oceans.
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“This is an opportunity to showcase our beautiful ocean, but more than ever, it is a way to highlight why it is so important to protect it. The ocean is faced with so much stuff, especially in Durban with the sewage issues, with the floods, with plastic pollution, and with marine life getting caught in the fishing nets and shark nets. It is really valuable to have something like World Oceans Day, which is a global day that recognises the oceans and the importance of them in our lives – to be able to coordinate with that,” she said.
Since retiring from competitive sport, the former South African team swimmer has become a passionate campaigner for ocean conservation in KwaZulu-Natal.
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 event are via the Roag website: www.roag.org.
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