Meet The Toxic Swimmer

Meet the man who swims in toxic waterways, Christopher Swain.

As part of his mission to protect threatened waterways, Christopher Swain was the first person in history to swim the entire lengths of the Columbia, Charles, Hudson, Mohawk, and Mystic Rivers, as well as Lake Champlain, the Gowanus Canal, Newtown Creek, and large sections of the Atlantic coast of the United States.

During his swims, Swain has survived collisions with boats, 12-foot waves, lightning storms, class IV+ rapids, waterfalls, logjams, toxic blue-green algae, blood-sucking Lamprey Eels, oil slicks, raw sewage spills, Great White Shark habitat, and water laced with arsenic, cyanide, dioxin, radioactive waste, PCBs and neuro-toxic pesticides.