in a nutshell
I , Sarah Outen, am a 24 year old adventurer, hooked on life and inspiring others to follow their own dreams.
One day I will be a teacher, and for now I am enjoying the opportunities to share my experiences and encourage other people to find and redefine their own boundaries.
I love adventure – the feeling of not quite knowing if or how you will make your destination, of pushing the limits and testing yourself against yourself and the elements. My love of the wild led me to a degree in Biology at the University of Oxford and in 2009 took me out to sea on the biggest adventure of my life.
the younger years
I had Tomboy written all over me as a child: anything involving racing around like a lunatic or hanging upside down seemed like heaven – tree-climbing, cycling, running and exploring. It was only in my teens that I took an interest in the water.
the oxford years 2004-7
Dominated by biology and rowing, these were great times in the city of dreaming spires: happy days indeed. Here I decided that one day I would row an ocean, and that my first would be the Indian. All was well until my Dad died very suddenly just before exams in my second year. I spent my final year trying to piece my life back to something coherent again.
highlights & lowlights
- important bits from the last few years:
Sailing in the Hebrides with Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust conducting wildlife surveys, using it as a base for my dissertation on basking sharks.
Captaining my college First VIII to ‘blades’ in Oxford University Torpids and Summer Eights and raced successfully in externals, too. I was lucky enough to row with the University crews in the Development Squad of 2006. Dad’s untimely death just before we were due to row at Henley changed my focus – it was all about surviving. At this point I decided to go solo across the ocean.
2006 was the Year of Baldilocks : half my hair fell out so I shaved my head. Liberating and exciting, if not slightly chilly.
Training, preparation and fundraising started in 2007 – I gained various sea related qualifications, ran the London Marathon, the Reading Half Marathon (Conclusion: Happy days but I am not built for long distance running!) and I crewed with Geoff Holt’s Round Britain Sailing Challenge. I also graduated from with a degree in biology and ventured out into the world of work – at St Edward’s School, Oxford.
2008 saw lots of boaty action. The 125 mile endurance Devizes to Westminster Race (2nd Solo Female). A canoeing expedition on the Tay in Scotland and an ocean passage across the North Atlantic from Iceland back to Plymouth. Rowing training in Gran Canaria.
2009 was the Year of the Ocean. I rowed solo from Australia to Mauritius in 124 day voyage, scooping three world records and raising £30K for charities.
…and when I grow up?
One day I will be a teacher. For now I will keep on journeying and sharing the adventures.
born to be wild
I’m no tree-hugger, but I am a naturalist at heart: wild places, creatures and landscapes are an intrinsic part of what makes me tick. As a teenager I volunteered with my local Wildlife Trust; we coppiced, built fences, laid hedges, counted birds, set up Osprey eyries and monitoring sites among other activities – it was very hands on and fuelled my conservation ethic.
I went to Mexico in my gap year, where I spent a few months on a Pacific beach, carrying out bird surveys and helping with monitoring and managing local sea turtle nesting and hatching sites. Here I witnessed the conflict between man and a declining species – poachers would kill the nesters to take the eggs to sell on to tourists to make a living. With a slow reproductive cycle, and migratory behaviour sea turtles are extremely vulnerable to pressure from fishing industries, pollution and land based development. Six out of the seven sea turtle species worldwide are redlisted as endangered.
At Oxford University I gained a deeper understanding of nature conservation, partly through volunteering with the Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust in Scotland. Having been intrigued and inspired by the sight of schools of basking sharks, awesome and huge, I returned to carry out my dissertation research into their feeding ecology. During hundreds of sea miles it was evident that this beautiful marine environment was damaged by pollution. I remember watching a basking shark one day, inches from swallowing a discarded plastic bag. I felt sick and guilty for the human culprit.
the blue stuff
As a rower and sailor, marine animals can provide you with much appreciated company, wonderful sights and exciting encounters. They are so adapted to life in and around the waves, a world where we humans are merely visitors.
Therefore seeing discarded waste and reading about the threats facing the oceans is a mighty sad thing. Even the tiny plankton which I spent months studying is threatened by chemical pollution, and thereafter everything up the food chain, too. The corals, the inverts, to fish, turtles, birdlife and mammals – everything is suffering from our impact. Pollution, waste disposal, industry, overharvesting of resources, rising sea temperatures : the list goes on.
Some could be avoided with little effort. Less wastage, more recycling, reduced resource use and more careful waste disposal. The oceans cannot be considered as a sponge or bottomless pit- we are poisoning and plundering the very ecosystems which we rely on for food, tourism, industry and enjoyment.
footprints & the future
Collectively we are living beyond our ecological means: the WWF Living Planet Report 2006 noted that our lifestyle is exceeding the planet’s capacity to regenerate by 25%. What about the future? For more than 20 years we have surpassed the planet’s ability to support us: we are in ‘overshoot’. Natural resources are being depleted and wasted, and species are being lost at an unprecedented rate, many without ever being known to science.
For many commercial fish species, it is a direct result of overfishing, pollution and poor management. Current estimates warn that half the world’s commercial fish stocks will have collapsed by 2050. For those countries relying on fish as their protein source (e.g. West Africa) this spells disaster for their already vulnerable food security.
The Tragedy of the Commons principle dictates that folk will only stop fishing once stocks have completely collapsed. So, while I have little hope for fish stocks under current conditions, I do have more hope that the collateral damage to non-target species can be reduced, such as bycatch in nets and long lines.
Save the Albatross
…a hopeful story
It is this optimism that I have found in the following campaign (STAC), spearheaded by the RSPB and Birdlife International, working to save the mighty ocean wanderers which have inspired mariners throughout history: the albatross. Every year 100,000 albatrosses die on baited hooks used by longline fisheries- that’s one bird every five minutes. Their slow reproductive rate (producing few chicks with a long brooding time) and their migratory behaviours render them unable to recover from such massive population reductions. 19 out of the 22 albatross species are now threatened.
“For an albatross, taking a fish from a baited hook is no different to a blue tit taking peanuts from a garden feeder. The contrast is that the albatross will pay the heaviest price of all for its meal – its life.” Sir David Attenborough
Specially trained Albatross Task Forces operate in the Southern hemisphere (South Africa, South America), working with fishermen to improve methods of setting and deploying long lines, and lobbying governments for legislation. Dyeing bait blue so the birds can’t see it, setting ‘Tori lines’ to act as bird scarers, deploying lines below the surface and fishing at night when fewer bird species are active are the focus – it is easy and effective, cheap and directly benefits fishermen by reducing bycatch. Save the Albatross
I am working with the RSPB to promote the STAC. The beauty for me is the combined focus – it is for birds and for people, and is working well for both. There is hope.
green as can be
I am all for supporting projects which support sustainable resource use and benefit both people and the environment.
Carbon emissions associated with shipping my boat and flying were offset by contributing to projects supported by Blue Ventures Carbon Offset, who work in the Indian Ocean. They provide solar and energy-efficient stoves in poor communities, helping reduce associated deforestation, carbon emissions compared to traditional open fires, and time and money spent gathering fuel.