Patron of Oceans Swims 1km in Antarctic to Raise Awareness of Environment

British endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh swam 1 kilometer in the icy waters off Antarctica in just his trunks and with only a kayak for support to raise awareness about protecting the ocean.

Pugh made his swim in the sub-zero waters of the Bellingshausen Sea, along the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula on December 16.

Lewis, who is also the Environment Patron of Oceans for the United Nations, is credited with playing an important role in the agreement earlier this year to create the world’s largest marine protection zone, making fishing off limits in much of the Ross Sea, a bay in the Southern Ocean.

"I swim in these places to carry a message about what we are doing to our environment. There’s nothing more symbolic than swimming across a place, which used to be frozen over and now is open sea," he said to the journalists.

At the end of December Pugh will arrive in Moscow to meet with Russian officials and discuss his participation in activities there in 2017, declared to be the Year of Ecology.