World of the Bizarre

Man begins epic attempt to swim the Pacific

By T.K. Randall
June 6, 2018 ·  14 comments

Can Lecomte make it across the Pacific ? Image Credit: Ben Lecomte / Kickstarter The 50-year-old, who swam across the Atlantic back in 1998, has set off from Japan in an attempt to swim a staggering 9,100 km across the Pacific over the course of the next six months.

He will consume 8,000 calories and swim for around 8 hours every single day. A support vessel - the Discoverer - will accompany him on his journey and provide a safe place for him to sleep.

"I am very anxious to start right now," he said before setting off. "I am not an Olympic swimmer, but I am an adventurer in the way that I push my limits."During his journey, Lecomte hopes to raise awareness for plastic pollution and will be swimming directly through an area of the ocean known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

"Pollution of the ocean has a big impact," he said. "When I was little and I was with my father walking on the beach, I didn't see any plastic, or hardly any. Now every time I go with my kids, we see plastic everywhere. It made me think what (the) future for my kids is going to be like."

"It's a problem we created and there is a very easy solution to start reversing it - single-use plastics for example, if we stop using them that will make a big change."


Source: Japan Times | Comments (14)

Tags: Swimming, Pacific, Ben Lecomte