Sharks are essential for keeping ocean ecosystems healthy and balanced. Yet more than one-third of shark species are at risk of extinction.
To sound the alarm about the urgent need to protect sharks, Lewis Pugh, endurance swimmer and UN Environment Programme Patron of the Oceans, swam 96 kilometres around the island of Martha’s Vineyard in May 2025. The swim by Pugh, who is also a maritime lawyer, marked the fiftieth anniversary of the film Jaws, which was filmed on the island 50 years ago and fuelled fear of sharks around the world.
This latest challenge builds on Pugh’s history of high-profile, awareness-raising swims -- from beneath the East Antarctica ice sheet to the length of the English Channel and across the Red Sea.
His Martha Vineyard’s swim drew widespread media coverage. It is part of a three-year advocacy campaign by the Lewis Pugh Foundation to promote ocean conservation and help reach the global goal of protecting 30 per cent of the ocean by 2030 that leaders pledged to in 2022 under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
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The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
The planet is experiencing a dangerous decline in nature. One million species are threatened with extinction, soil health is declining, and water sources are drying up. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework sets out global targets to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030. It was adopted by world leaders in December 2022. To address the drivers of the nature crisis, UNEP is working with partners to take action in landscapes and seascapes, transform our food systems, and close the finance gap for nature.
