Lewis Pugh, who is the United Nation’s Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Patron of the Oceans, is undertaking a series of swims in the Antarctic Ocean to influence world leaders to make the Ross Sea – which is under serious threat from commercial fishing and global warming – a Marine Protected Area.
And Pugh has spoken of the intense pain he suffered swimming in -1.7C waters, with a 50-minute hot shower required afterwards to get his core body temperature back to a healthy level.
‘It was an exceptionally tough swim, especially as I had to navigate around sharp ice and couldn’t just keep my head down and swim,’ he said.
‘My fingers were in absolute agony from around the 300m mark, I’ve never felt pain like it before.
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