Catch Hugo on Do Radio: It's Not About Trees with John Lunn 20-26th October 2025.
Hugo is a surfer, campaigner, and environmentalist. He is Executive Director and Vice President of Oceana in the UK. He previously led the NGO Surfers Against Sewage, campaigning from the beach front to the front benches of Parliament. Hugo co-founded the Global Wave Conference, Plastic Free Communities movement, the Million Mile Beach Clean & Safer Seas Service, and has been instrumental in exposing water company sewage pollution and the plastic pollution crisis.
Hugo was recently awarded a Doctorate of Science by Exeter University for his services to the marine environment. He was made Environmentalist of the Year 2021 by Save the Waves, featured in the ENDS Report 2023 Campaigning Power List, and has been shortlisted as Leader of the Year in the 2023 Purpose Awards.
Show Notes:
In this episode of It’s Not About Trees, John Lunn speaks with Hugo Tagholm, ocean activist, surfer, and CEO of Oceana UK. From mudlarking as a child on the Thames foreshore to leading one of the world’s most influential ocean NGOs, Hugo has dedicated his life to protecting the seas that sustain us.
He reflects on his journey from building Surfers Against Sewage into a national force to stepping into the global stage at Oceana, where he campaigns for marine protected areas, fights industrial fishing, and challenges the fossil fuel industry.
Hugo shares stories of creative campaigning — from sewage suits to “Wasteland” films — and the power of collaboration to shift public awareness. He also explores the storms we face: plastic in our bodies, sewage in our rivers, and the ongoing politicisation of climate action. But always, he returns to hope — grounded in science, technology, and the unstoppable energy of people who refuse to give up.
Highlights include:
- Growing up exploring the Thames foreshore and Cornwall’s rockpools.
- Building Surfers Against Sewage into a mainstream movement on plastic and sewage.
- Why sewage pollution is as much a financial scandal as an environmental one.
- The creative power of campaigns like Wasteland and “the sewage surfer.”
- The culture wars around climate — and why the green transition is inevitable.
- How satellite data and AI are ending the era of “out of sight, out of mind” ocean destruction.
- Collaboration across borders: why no NGO can win alone.
- Hope in the 30x30 global biodiversity goal, blue carbon ecosystems, and a new generation of activists.
Book, Song, Quote
- Books: The Sea Around Us — Rachel Carson; works of John Steinbeck
- Song: An Ocean Between the Waves — The War on Drugs
Quote: “Ce n’est pas la chute qui compte, c’est l’atterrissage.” (“It’s not the fall that counts, it’s the landing.”) — La Haine (1995)
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