Three big things are negatively impacting our oceans: climate change, overfishing and plastic pollution.
To tackle these three issues, the LPF has four major campaigns.
30 x 30
THE LONG SWIM • SHARK HUNTING
Thirty per cent of the world's Oceans protected by 2020. That was our ask when Lewis Pugh embarked on The Long Swim along the entire length of the English Channel in July 2018. At the time the United Nations recognised marine conservation target was 10 % by 2020. The world wasn't close to reaching that mark, and yet marine conservation scientists worldwide agreed that it was far to conservative a target.
By the end of The Long Swim in August, the United Kingdom had become the first major economy to call for
30% of oceans to be protected by 2030.
The Long Swim swim marked the beginning of a worldwide campaign to ensure that other nations come on board and 30% of our oceans are fully protected by 2030.
The Long Swim
Some 2000 people have swum across the English Channel since Captain Matthew
Webb famously first made it in 1875, But no one had ever done the same along its length.
Until the summer of 2018.
During July and August 2018, Lewis Pugh became the first person to swim the full length of the English Channel, from Land's End to Dover, in just his cap, goggles and Speedo swimming costume, as dictated by Channel Rules.
Sponsorship of shark hunts suspended
In 2016 it came to our attention that 6 multi-national corporations were sponsoring shark-hunting competitions in the USA – this at a time when the apex predator is endangered around the world. Over 100 million sharks are slaughtered in our seas each year. That's more than 270,000 per day. It’s completely unsustainable and, left unchecked, will result in the collapse of our oceans.
We interact with branded goods and services every single day. In many ways we have a closer relationship with companies than we do with our local or national governments. And in the same way that we make our wishes known to governments, we can use our voices and our purchasing power to hold companies to account.
By going straight to the people in charge and pointing out the embarrassment it would cause their corporations (not to mention the dent to their bottom line) should this attract the attention of the global media, we convinced them to withdraw their sponsorship.
Watch the Sky Documentary - The Long Swim
ROSS SEA • EAST ANTARCTICA • SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS • ANTARCTIC PENINSULA • WEDELL SEA
The first major campaign of the Lewis Pugh Foundation, Antarctica 2020, was launched in December 2016, hot on the heals of the successful establishment of the Ross Sea MPA. See below.
Over the next three years, the Antarctica 2020 Campaign will bring together a coalition of voices to push for six further seas that ring Antarctica to be similarly protected. Together with the recent Ross Sea MPA, these protected areas will span nearly 7 million square kilometres – roughly the size of Australia.
Our ambition is to have these MPAs declared by 2020, to coincide with the 200-year anniversary of the discovery of Antarctica.
In addition to being backed by the United Nations, our Campaign has the support of prominent world
leaders, scientists, Nobel laureates, environmentalists, policymakers and peacemakers. This public
pressure is key since, once again, all members of CCAMLAR (the 24 nations plus the EU who oversee
Antarctic oceans) will need to come together in agreement to extend this protection.
Ross Sea MPA
In October 2016, the world’s largest protected wilderness on land or water, the 1.5 million square kilometre Ross Sea MPA came into effect.
This massive success brought with it a sobering realisation: many more MPAs were urgently needed in other Antarctic seas, and across the oceans of the world, to protect our planet’s waters from overfishing, pollution and climate change.
The Lewis Pugh Foundation was created to ensure that this happens.
NORTH POLE SWIM • SEA ICE 10 YEARS ON • THE LAST GAME
Watch the Sky Documentary - Arctic Perils
GIBRALTAR BALLOONS • VERSOVA BEACH • UK BEACH CLEAN-UPS
Gibraltar balloons downed
In 2016 we negotiated the halt to an annual mass balloon release in Gibraltar that had been practiced for 24 years. The practice of releasing tens of thousands of balloons into the air, eventually coming to earth or landing at sea, was very harmful to the environment. After initial resistance, the government of Gibraltar agreed to find a more ecologically sound way of celebrating their national day.
VERSOVA BEACH CLEAN UPAfroz Shah is proof that one inspiring person can make a world of difference. In 2016 he invited the UN Patron of the Oceans to Mumbai to join the collective of volunteers he had gathered, each of them donating hours every weekend to participate what has become the world's biggest beach clean up. What Lewis Pugh found when he arrived shocked him to the core. "I had to remind myself that that there was sand underneath this muck in which I stood, ankle deep and overwhelmed. Where to start? Afroz answered my question: 'Start at your feet.'”
Lewis collected close to 700 pairs of broken shoes that morning, within ten metres of where he stood. By the end of the day, he was standing on golden sand. The experience would inspire the launch of World Beach Clean up Day.
Watch the Sky Documentary - Plastic Whale