On World Oceans Day let's celebrate and respect the magic of the Great Blue
Ignacio Dean explains that never did very well in the pool . That he didn't dive headfirst because water got into his glasses. That he didn't know how to turn neither he kicked well nor mastered the technique to breathe on both sides . But he had just completed walking around the world and when they asked him “now what?” he decided to jump into the water to unite the 5 continents by swimming.
He did it because he wanted a new challenge , but also with the willingness to learn about the state of marine ecosystems and launch a conservation message . So totally convinced he bought a monthly subscription to a municipal swimming pool that he has close to home and promised to go every day until i was ready to carry out what he would call “Expedition Nemo”: an adventure full of incredible moments around the world, but also accompanied by crocodiles, sharks, dangerous jellyfish, big waves and more than one diplomatic problem.
After 2 years of training, 2,500 kilometers swum and a million and a half strokes, he can proudly state that he is the first person in history to have walked around the world and to join the five continents by swimming . He now collects his experience in The Call of the Ocean (Zenith), where he details how the preparations for this adventure that began in the Strait of Gibraltar (Europe-Africa) and that took him to swim the Meis-Kas traverse (Europe-Asia), to travel to the remote Bering strait (America-Asia), to plunge into the Bismarck Sea (Asia-Oceania) and which ended in the gulf of aqaba (Africa-Asia). At Condé Nast Traveler we talked to him to remind us of some of these moments.
What did you like the most? He is clear. “Discovering a fascinating world full of possibilities in the ocean. We live on a planet where more than 70% of the surface is covered by water, however, the sea is the great forgotten. throughout the expedition I have seen dolphins, humpback whales, sperm whales, pilot whales... and we have tour places so remote and exciting like the Bering Strait, over the Arctic Circle, where we were living with Eskimos, or on the island of Papua where tribes live that have not yet been contacted.
He also has no doubts when it comes to explaining At what point have you been most scared? . “It was, on the fourth crossing, in the Bismarck Sea, a tropical sea with sharks, crocodiles and the poisonous Irukandji jellyfish . He was crossing the mouth of the Muara Tami River, a river that comes down from the jungle full of mud and logs, with very cloudy water where he could not see anything, he had been swimming for two hours more than two kilometers from the coast to avoid the mangrove area and crocodiles, and suddenly felt the whiplash of a jellyfish sting in the face . My fear is that it was the Irukandji, or that I was getting into a school of jellyfish, so I began to push hard to get out of that area while paying attention to the evolution of the pain.
But as we mentioned at the beginning, one of the objectives of this adventure was to launch a ocean conservation message . And that is why in the book he explains, among other things, that every year 110,000 ships pass through the Strait of Gibraltar and that 50% of world maritime traffic takes place in the Mediterranean, one of the most polluted seas on the planet. Or that 24,000 metric tons of plastic, bags and balloons are dumped into the oceans annually, which turtles ingest when they confuse them with jellyfish, one of their main foods. “ The health of the planet is in a serious state – Ignacio Dean warns us -: the melting poles as a consequence of global warming, pollution, the alarming loss of biodiversity... as a consequence of human activity. However, I remain hopeful that the human being who calls himself sapiens will be able to react in time and change the course of history”.
And once the challenge is over, it's time to ask him again and now that? And this naturalist and professional explorer tells us that e he is preparing a documentary about the Nemo Expedition and also preparing a new adventure, this time under sail. “Stay tuned – he warns us – because I will be revealing more details soon!”