Sporting his UNEP swim cap, Mr. Pugh lifted himself out of New York Harbor, only a quick stroll from the World Commerce Heart, to a crowd of supporters and curious onlookers.
Dream swim
The 53-year-old British-South African started his 32-day journey in a small lake simply south of the idyllic Adirondack village, Lake Placid. For over a month, he swam down your entire size of the river, sometimes overlaying over 20 km in a single day.
“I have been dreaming about this swim for a few years, nevertheless it’s been well worth the wait. For the previous month I’ve acquired to know the Hudson River actually intimately, and it looks like I’ve made a lifelong pal with this river,” stated Mr. Pugh.
He described being in awe of the extraordinary biodiversity he had seen, which helped him push by way of the bodily ache of the swim.
It additionally stiffened his resolve to maintain advocating for broken marine ecosystems throughout the globe.
Lewis Pugh, UNEP Patron of the Ocean, swims into the New York Harbor
“The bald eagles, the vultures, the beavers, the black bears. Then swimming into Albany and turning onto my again to perform a little backstroke to open up the chest and watching an osprey slowly following me down the river…It is one thing you’ll always remember,” he stated.
“However we should additionally always remember the historical past of the Hudson. Sure, extra must be completed and we should proceed to be vigilant. However the Hudson offers me hope. I hope it offers hope to individuals around the globe that at some point, their rivers can be saved.”
Profound message
Mr. Pugh selected the Hudson to spotlight profitable efforts to scrub the river in latest a long time and encourage different international locations to undertake comparable efforts in a few of the world’s most polluted waterways.
“I’m so delighted we’ve got been in a position to do that swim efficiently and I believe this river is emblematic of rivers all around the world,” stated Mr. Pugh.
“Water is crucial for all times on earth. If we’re going to have wholesome oceans, we additionally must have wholesome rivers; they’re the arteries of our planet.”
Soiled historical past
Simply 150 years in the past, the Hudson River was one of the vital productive ecosystems on this planet. Populations of sturgeon, river herring, and blue crab used the river as a hall from the Atlantic Ocean to spawning grounds upriver.
Within the early 20th century, nonetheless, inhabitants development and industrialization devastated the worldwide waterway. Chemical waste dumping, overfishing, and habitat fragmentation threatened the biodiversity of the river and the communities that trusted it.
Efforts to scrub up the Hudson and its many tributaries over the previous 50 years, nonetheless, have begun to bear fruit. In 1972 the US handed the Clear Water Act, banning firms from dumping chemical waste into the nation’s navigable waterways.
Bans on business fishing have been launched in 1976 and prolonged in 1985. In 2002, officers started dredging riverbed sediment laden with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) which had contaminated a 320 km stretch of the river.
UN coordination function
Lewis Pugh, UNEP Patron of the Ocean, instantly after his 517 km swim down the Hudson river.
In response to UNEP, water, inequalities, and the atmosphere are intently linked.
Billions of individuals worldwide presently dwell with out entry to soundly managed consuming water and sanitation providers, regardless that entry to each has been outlined as a human proper.
This has inspired a renewed willingness amongst UN Member States to lastly handle harm to the world’s waterways forward of the Local weather Ambition Summit.
Constructing on the legacy of the UN Conference on the Regulation of the Sea, the Excessive Seas Treaty goals to make sure the conservation and sustainable use of marine assets past nationwide maritime boundaries.
It supplies a framework for elevated cooperation between Member States and different worldwide stakeholders to advertise the sustainable improvement of the ocean and its assets.
Its implementation will make essential contributions to the objectives and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Growth.
‘Large privilege’
“It is an enormous privilege to have the ability to symbolize the UN, and I really feel obsessed with international locations working collectively to resolve environmental points. Nations will have the ability to come to the UN and have the ability to ratify the Excessive Seas treaty,” Mr. Pugh instructed UN Information, shortly after rising from the water.
“It’s the final piece of the world that lastly wants defending. I am actually excited to be there subsequent week for this actually historic second.”
The treaty supplies, for the primary time, a global authorized framework for the evaluation of the cumulative impacts of local weather change in areas past nationwide maritime boundaries.
It should additionally increase worldwide cooperation to degree the taking part in subject for all Member States to profit from wholesome marine ecosystems.
Worldwide conservation increase
“This treaty is necessary as a result of, up till now, the conservation efforts of marine ecosystems have been restricted to territorial waters of particular person international locations,” Jamil Ahmad, UNEP New York Director of Intergovernmental Affairs instructed UN Information.
“Now, with the Excessive Seas Treaty, the oceans at massive will come beneath the jurisdiction of environmental governance, and we could have cooperation, partnerships, and collaborations of nations and areas on a world degree to guard international ecosystems.”
The Excessive Seas Treaty will likely be open for signature at United Nations Headquarters in New York for 2 years from 20 September 2023, the day after the 2023 Sustainable Growth Aim Summit. It should enter into pressure after ratification by 60 States.
