Swimming from Durban to Cape Town
The team at Breathe Conservation relies on events like the World Ocean Day Swim to receive crucial funding that helps them continue the work that they do in the communities.
Ahead of this year’s Consol Breathe Conservation World Ocean Day Swim on September 24, the team at Breathe Conservation continues to put in place programmes that highlight the issues facing our oceans daily.
Recently the beaches in Durban have been reopened as E.coli levels dropped to manageable levels after the floods damaged infrastructure in and around the city. This has meant that the World Ocean Day Swim had to be rescheduled for September.
Despite the big push to eliminate single-use plastics however they have a number of other projects that they are championing throughout the city.
CEO Sarah Ferguson said: “Breathe aims to eliminate throw away plastic pollution by inspiring change through education. We have monthly reef clean-ups, corporate and retail education, and extreme swims locally and globally. We have also launched our first Marine Guide Development programme in partnership with Zebra Shark adventures and funded by Oceans Alive. We have trained up two marine guides in this programme and are busy with our new intake of guides for the next course.”
The monthly reef clean-ups off the Durban beaches have become a popular venture for volunteers but the recent events along the KZN coast have had a significant knock-on effect on Breathe and its plans.
Ferguson added: “We have collected over 60kg of litter from our monthly reef clean ups despite having a forced four-month break due to the floods in KwaZulu-Natal. Many of our events this year have had to be postponed or cancelled as a result of the floods and we have struggled to keep going as a result of this. We rely on these annual events to keep us functioning. This year we have had to let go our permanent staff and social media team and are functioning on volunteers to keep our programmes going.”
Ferguson is currently taking on her One Ocean Swim where she is swimming from Durban to Cape Town. This is an endeavour that she hopes will inspire people to change their lifestyle to a more sustainable one.
“We have provided a few marine guided walks on the North Coast and launched a limited edition range of products inspired by the One Ocean Swim from Durban to Cape Town. During this swim we have engaged with local schools and communities as well as educated the public through various news channels on the importance of behavioural change around consumer habits as well as helpful tips on how to eliminate unnecessary plastic from our lives,” said Ferguson.
The team at Breathe Conservation relies on events like the World Ocean Day Swim to receive crucial funding that helps them continue the work that they do in the communities.
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