The World Oceans Day Swim In Durban
Courtesy of Dave Macleod, Gameplan Media, Durban, South Africa.
Sarah Ferguson is taking on yet another role.
The South African open water swimmer, physiotherapist, motivational speaker, Pilates instructor, swim coach, Breathe Ocean Conservation founder and ambassador, and a former national level competitive swimmer from Durban is now organizing a 800m, 1.6 km, 3.2 km and 5 km ocean swim in her hometown. She is serving as the race director for The World Oceans Day Swim that will be held at Vetch’s Beach in Durban on June 5th.
Ferguson, the first person to swim 60 km around Easter Island in Polynesia, explains, “The aim of this event is to create awareness of the problem of plastic in the ocean and to encourage ocean users to be mindful of the impact that their daily choices have on the ocean. Breathe’s whole philosophy is to eliminate throw-away plastic pollution and all unnecessary plastic. We encourage people to live deeply and tread lightly. We want people to follow their passion, while being mindful of their environment while doing so.
There is so much each of us can do to help, like not taking a disposal coffee cup, but rather bringing your own cup. The same with bottled water, or single use plastic straws, and just getting into the habit of picking up plastic when you find it. That’s all part of becoming a powerful consumer. As consumers, we dictate what producers produce.
Look at any beach around the world and you will see the amount of plastic that is washing up. The impact that that has on our environment is huge. World Oceans Day is an international day of recognition where we plan to create awareness of the importance of our oceans and the importance of protecting our oceans. As a swimmer and an ocean lover, it is a fantastic chance to share our love of the ocean and create awareness of the things that are harming the ocean.
All the funds raised from the swim will towards the projects that Breathe is running. The main project is educational – going into our schools. We have given 500 copies of John McCarthy’s book ‘Swimming Easter Island‘ that documents my circumnavigation of the island. One school already has it as part if its curriculum and another two are on standby.
We are about to launch our slip-slop projects that involves recycling slip-slops through Lizzard and an EVA factory that recycles every part of the slip-slops. We run monthly beach clean-ups with Zebra Shark Adventures, which forms part of the international Blue Communities working to protect the oceans. We snorkel the Vetch’s Reef to clean it, and we run guided walks as well. We have started guided walks on the Philocaly Trail, which offers guided walks with a snorkel at the end of one of the days.”
More information is available at www.dolphinmile.co.za.
The Dolphin Mile Surf Swim Series
- Race #1 April 11th (results of the Top 10 athletes in the 1.6 km race listed below)
- Race #2 April 25th
- Race #3 May 16th
- Race #4 May 23rd
- Race #5 June 13th
- Race #6 June 20th
- Race #7 July 4th
- Race #8 July 11th
- Race #9 July 25th
- Back-up Date August 15th
- Back-up Date August 22nd
- Teague White 18:52
- Matthew Pelser 19:00
- Kaylan Govender 19:57
- Dhilan Govender 20:00
- Connor Porter 20:02
- Madison Alberts 20:11 [first female]
- Niccholas Nel 20:12
- Julian Taylor 20:29
- Lance De Kock 21:07
- Jason Cooke 21:23
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