British explorer Chris Brown becomes first person ever to swim at Point Nemo

British explorer Chris Brown achieved a huge milestone by leading an expedition to Point Nemo, which is the oceanic pole of inaccessibility in the Pacific Ocean.

He said he became the first person to “ever swim at Point Nemo”. The point is located in the southern Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand.

In an Instagram post, Brown wrote, “Point Nemo – the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility – bagged on Wednesday 20th March 2024. Having stood with a flag at the other Poles, I thought it would be a good idea to get in the water and become the first people to ever swim at Point Nemo.”

Point Nemo has been named after the famous submarine sailor from Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – Captain Nemo. The name Nemo is derived from a Latin term that means ‘no man’.

The Hrvoje Lukatela, a Croatian survey engineer, named the region in 1992. He also recalculated the exact coordinates using Google Maps data to compare them to his original findings. The exact coordinates of this remote oceanic location are said to be at 48°52.6’S 123°23.6’W.

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Point Nemo is so far away from any land on Earth that the closest people to it are often on board the International Space Station (ISS). It is approximately 2,688 kilometres from the nearest shore.

The closest land in one direction, Ducie Island, an atoll in the Pitcairn Islands, is officially the closest place to it. Even that particular landmass is uninhabited, so a person would have to travel a little further to find any people in case one would head north.

If one heads south, the person will arrive at Maher Island in Antarctica, or head northeast to Motu Nui Island, another deserted island near Easter Island.

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Point Nemo is a space cemetery

Point Nemo has been deemed a suitable place to crash a satellite in a controlled manner because plunging satellites from a great height won’t potentially hurt anyone. ISS, which is the largest space station ever built, will plunge into the Pacific Ocean in early 2031.

All those spacecraft that have reached the end of their life or purpose are routinely crashed.