Endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh completes Red Sea swim to highlight coral plight
The UN patron of the ocean undertook the world’s first swim across the Red Sea to call for action on climate change which threatens coral reefs.
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Your support makes all the difference.British endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh has completed the world’s first swim across the Red Sea to highlight the threat climate change is posing to coral reefs.
The UN patron of the oceans swam 123km (76 miles) from Tiran Island, Saudi Arabia, to Hurghada, Egypt, ahead of the latest round of international climate talks which are taking place in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh next month.
Mr Pugh is calling for nations to drastically cut their emissions to tackle the climate crisis and for at least 30% of the world’s oceans to be protected to help them be more resilient to global warming.
He has completed his hazardous 16-day swim, covering between 6km and 12km (4-7 miles) each day, as the UN released a new assessment warning the world is on track for warming of around 2.5C by the end of the century.
The UN’s scientific review body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has previously said 70-90% of coral reefs would be lost with global warming of 1.5C but would all but vanish in a world with 2C rises.
Mr Pugh swam over some of the world’s most famous coral reefs, including off the Sinai Peninsula’s southern tip at Ras Mohammed National Park, where, he said, “there’s arid desert as far as the eye can see, but under the water, life explodes”.
He was joined by swimmers from both Saudi Arabia and Egypt on the coral swim, which also took him past Sharm El-Sheikh, where he will be attending the Cop27 talks to urge climate action and ocean protection.
His swim also took him across the Gulf of Suez, through the path of one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
“In all my years of swimming, I’ve never experienced anything like this.
“There were hazards coming at me from every angle – extreme heat, high winds, big waves, sharks, oil tankers and container ships.
“I had to fight for every metre,” he said.
Mr Pugh, who has previously swum in the Arctic and Antarctica in some of the world’s coldest waters, warns that Earth’s oceans have changed dramatically in the 35 years he has been swimming in them – with the polar regions and coral reefs most affected.
“Both are affected by rising temperatures: the poles are melting and the coral is dying. Ice and coral are the ground zeros of the climate crisis,” he warns.
And he said: “If we lose our coral reefs, we will not just drive many thousands of species into extinction, we will lose an entire ecosystem on which we depend.
“This would be unprecedented in human history. Coral reefs are the nurseries of our oceans and home to some of the most incredible life on Earth.”
And he said researchers have found that the coral in the Red Sea is more resilient to warming and seawater becoming more acidic, as a result of carbon emissions, than other places, so it is imperative to protect it.
A campaign is calling for the “Great Fringing Reef” of the Egyptian Red Sea to be declared a protected area to reduce the pressure on the reef and help it survive.