20-05-2025
BBC Audio Chile's ice mermaid and her record-breaking glacial swims
Bárbara Hernández is affectionately known in Chile as the Ice Mermaid, she swims in often glacially cold waters and holds the record for the longest swim in Antarctica. She swam in water that was 2°C for a mind-boggling 2.5 kilometres. She's also the first South American to have completed the Oceans 7, a marathon swimming challenge consisting of seven open water channel swims: she had an extra incentive for finishing that one as she promised her boyfriend she'd marry him if she succeeded. It's all an unexpected turn for the little girl who was laughed at for wearing second-hand swimming costumes and never felt good enough in the pool.
The list of underwater predators that Amos Nachoum has photographed is long - it includes the Nile crocodile, the great white shark, orcas, anacondas and many other creatures that most of us would hope never to encounter. But for Amos that list was incomplete, his dream, his white whale, was to swim with a polar bear and photograph it. His first attempt went badly wrong, but it did not deter him and in 2015 he made his second attempt. He shares his account of that adventure with Outlook's Saskia Collette. This interview was first broadcast in 2021. To hear the full story search for BBC Outlook Swimming with polar bears - a photographer's 'crazy' dream.
Presenter: Jo Fidgen
Producer: Andrea Kennedy
Get in touch: outlook@ or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707
(Photo: Bárbara Hernández swimming in front of an Antarctic glacier. Credit: Ulises Yañez)
