The fourth annual Breathe World Ocean Day Swim will once again be leading the battle against plastic pollution in the ocean, as part of its war to Save Our Sea (SOS).
The popular mid-winter swim sponsored by FNB will be held at the Durban Beach Club on June 7.
Record-breaking endurance swimmer Sarah Ferguson, the passionate driving force behind what has become South Africa’s biggest open water ocean swim, is challenging fellow swimmers to respond to the SOS call to reduce plastic pollution.
The event offers swimmers the option of four distances, ranging from 800m, through the traditional mile or 1.6km, up to a testing 3.2km and the long 5km Olympic distance.
“The annual Breathe World Ocean Day Swim is close to my heart and comes from my passion to clean and save our oceans,” said Ferguson.
“As an ocean swimmer, I have seen the devastating effect pollution has on our oceans and want to raise awareness, so I started the event as a way to honour World Ocean Day, and help create an awareness about why we should protect the oceans.”
She also mentioned that this is an opportunity to both showcase the beautiful ocean, and highlight why it is so important to protect it as it is faced with so many challenges, especially in Durban with the sewage leaks, flooding and plastic pollution.
“It is invaluable to have something like World Ocean Day, which is a global day that recognises the oceans and the importance of it in our lives, and for our event to be able to co-ordinate with that,” she said.
The race beneficiary is Breathe Conservation which is a South African-based non-profit marine conservation organisation that focuses on reducing and eliminating single-use plastics.
With a motto of ‘Live Deeply, Tread Lightly’, Breathe aims to inspire future generations to reconnect with nature by providing education resources and running regular beach and reef clean-ups – and events such as the Breathe World Ocean Day Swim sponsored by FNB.
Entries for the Breathe World Ocean Day Swim are open on the MyActive entry platform at breatheworldoceandayswim2025.myactive.co.za
The first 300 entries will get a free event towel and all entrants receive a swim cap.
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