Keith Addis, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Dr. Daniel Pauly, and Amber Valletta, in the Pacific, and Andrew Sharpless, María Eugenia Girón, César Gaviria, and Sam Waterston in the Atlantic, Oceana members Each year, commercial fishing fleets catch an estimated 16 billion pounds of unwanted fish—and they throw back this bycatch, dead or dying. As a result of this and other human practices, 90 percent of our big predator fish are gone and about 30 marine species are now endangered. Meanwhile, the ocean has become an out-of-sight dumping ground—for sewage, oil, and mercury from industrial plants. “On the surface, everything looks great,” says board member Ted Danson, who has been a devoted ocean conservationist since the 80s, when he was better known for starring in the TV series Cheers. “You have to look below the surface. Then you see. You see why scientists believe that the oceans are headed towards a collapse.” Photographed for the 2008 Green Issue by Art Streiber.
Vanity Fair, May 2007
Link to the article here.