<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">A French swimmer has set off from Japan aiming to become the first person to swim across the Pacific Ocean. Ben Lecomte will swim for eight hours a day for more than six months as he heads towards the US west coast. He is hoping to raise awareness for climate change. A team of scientists will conduct research during the </span></div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">almost 8,850 kilometre swim. The team will study plastic debris and examine how the Fukushima nuclear disaster has affected the ocean.</div>