Skip to content

Ross Sea Marine Park

Ross Sea Marine Park
Photo by Yuriy Rzhemovskiy on Unsplash

28th October 2016

It sometimes feels like we don’t hear many positive stories in the news. But today, something truly amazing happened. After five years of failed negotiations, the EU and 24 countries have now agreed to protect 1.1m sq km of the Ross Sea in Antarctica. This will become the largest marine park in the world.

The Ross Sea is a very special part of the ocean, producing an estimated three-quarters of the nutrients that sustain life in the world’s oceans.

Many individuals, groups and organisations came together to help get the agreement over the line. I would like to briefly mention the stand-out efforts of one person, who went to extreme lengths to protect this unique ecosystem. Lewis Pugh is an ocean advocate, who undertook 5 swims in the Ross Sea (wearing just a speedo! Check out the video here) and followed that up with numerous meetings with politicians and diplomats. Lewis undertook the swims to highlight the need to protect the waters around Antarctica; this is what real dedication towards a cause looks like.

Thank you and well done Lewis. You consistently prove that we can all achieve our dreams, regardless of how impossible they may seem.

More Cause for Hope

I could write an extensive blog post about Lewis’s incredible achievements and how he has inspired me, but I will only talk about one more of Lewis’ actions today. Recently, Lewis took part in the largest beach clean-up in history, at Versova Beach in India.

In this video, Lewis talks about how when you look at a problem that’s caused by 1.3 billion people (the population of India), it may seem impossible to solve. However, when you take a problem and divide it by 1.3 billion people – the opposite is true.

I often look at climate change and think to myself; this is a problem caused by a population of over 7.4 billion people and counting. How can we seriously tackle a problem that is caused by so many people, when it will involve such massive changes to our society? But when you apply Lewis’ thinking, if we can get a fair percentage of the 7.4 billion people to care, then it suddenly seems a little bit more achievable.

I would encourage you to watch the video here. Let’s dream, work and fight for a cleaner environment.

Links

World’s largest marine park created in Ross Sea in Antarctica in landmark deal – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/28/worlds-largest-marine-park-created-in-ross-sea-in-antarctica-in-landmark-deal

Lewis Pugh: Sometimes ‘Crazy’ Gets the Job Done – http://lewispugh.com/sometimes-crazy-gets-the-job-done/

VIDEO: Lewis Pugh’s 5 Swims in the Ross Sea – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CoDPyCWMzU

VIDEO: Lewis Pugh at the Versova Beach Clean-Up – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF1CqXU_VUQ&feature=youtu.be

My new cli-fi children’s picture book is Nanook and the Melting Arctic. Nanook is a caring polar bear who lives in the Arctic. But when his igloo starts melting, Nanook must find a way to save his friends and his home. He knows that the people who can help are also those who’ve caused the problem and he must find a way to convince leaders to act on the climate crisis. You can purchase Nanook from Amazon’s global stores including Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Published inConservationThe Climate Crisis