Relentless campaigning and urgency are two elements around climate action which Hugo Tagholm epitomises. Aligned with his unstinting passion for the ocean, it makes for a powerful leadership mix which has held the government to account.
“Protecting large swathes of our ocean, sustainable fish populations and sustaining human populations should not be mutually exclusive. The ocean can and should sustain us – so long as we give it the chance to.”
Hugo leads the ocean campaigning charity Surfers Against Sewage, taking action from the beach front to the front benches of Parliament. SAS connects and empowers over 100,000 ocean activists annually, and drives government legislation to protect our seas across four environmental pillars – plastic pollution, water quality, climate change and rewilding our ocean.
He is also part of the Edinburgh University Ocean Leaders programme and was recently awarded a Doctorate of Science by Exeter University for his services to the marine environment. He is a columnist for media partner Oceanographic magazine and a non-executive director of the ethical creative agency Enviral. He was made Environmentalist of the Year 2021 by the Save the Waves coalition.
