Braving icy waters and relentless waves, endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh has become the first swimmer to circle Martha's Vineyard, launching a bold campaign to change the way we see sharks ahead of Jaws' 50th anniversary. The 55-year-old British-South African swimmer completed a 62-mile swim around the island off the coast of Massachusetts Monday after having spent 24 hours over a period of 12 days swimming in frigid, 47-degree Fahrenheit water, with the challenge timed to draw attention to shark conservation ahead of the anniversary of the classic shark film shot nearby. Pugh, who has completed notable swims at both the North Pole and across all the world's oceans, said this was among his hardest, citing rough weather, persistent wind and waves, and the ever-present thought of what might be swimming below, the AP reports.
Donning only trunks, cap, and goggles, Pugh sometimes managed just over half a mile per day due to the challenging conditions, including a nor'easter that washed out parts of New England. He finished at Edgartown Harbor Lighthouse—where Jaws filmed iconic scenes—and marked the moment with ice cream before discussing his motive: changing how people view sharks. Citing statistics that 274,000 sharks are killed each day worldwide, Pugh called their decimation "ecocide," and argued that protecting sharks is crucial for ocean health.
Though a support team used a no-harm device to deter sharks during his swim, there were no shark sightings. Pugh said the real challenge now is influencing policymakers to bolster shark protections. "I'm not saying it's safe to swim with sharks. What I'm saying is sharks are really threatened and that we need to be protecting them," Pugh tells CBS News. (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
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