JUNEAU -- When the board of directors for Oceana gathers, there's more than just the health of oceans that makes headlines.
That's because one of the board members is Ted Danson, the actor widely recognized as Sam Malone on the television show "Cheers" and from roles in movies such as "Three Men and a Baby."
Danson flew to Juneau on Wednesday for an Oceana board meeting.
Danson founded the American Oceans Campaign in 1987 to bring national attention to ocean environmental issues. The group merged with Oceana in 2001 to bring the cause to a global level. Oceana's Pacific Region office is in Juneau.
"It's a board meeting where we decide how we've done up to this point and what we're going to do next," Danson said. "But I think it's specifically geared for us to get to know Alaska, and get to know the Pacific in general."
Jim Ayers, director of the Pacific Region for Oceana, said Danson has been an outspoken leader for the ocean conservation movement.
"Different people have seen different Ted Danson movies and maybe even speeches, but he is one of the kindest, more interesting people I have met in my life," Ayers said.
Danson said he looked forward to thanking people who have been involved with Alaska's ocean conservation work. Visiting Oceana's locations in Spain, Chile and the United States made impressions on him, he said.
Danson said Oceana is not trying to "throw bricks" but rather is working toward finding solutions to problems.
"What you want to do is to stabilize fishing practices so that you have sustainable fishing," he said. "I love fish. We all want to eat fish, so it's not about stopping that or being nasty to the fishermen. It's about having sustainable fisheries, and that means protecting the habitat and managing the fisheries in a way that they can be sustained."
Danson said that in his nearly 20 years of ocean activism he has seen small, incremental changes but has seen a large change in the awareness of the issues.
"You can talk to any school kid now and they get it. They do understand that the oceans are not this limitless place where you can dump all of our waste," he said. "They do get, you know, that we live a toxic lifestyle and can't just keep junking and cleaning it up."
Danson said he is particularly impressed by changes that have taken place in Alaska, such as the closure of 250,000 square miles to trawl fishing off the Aleutian Islands and the pollution controls imposed on the cruise ship industry. He said the fight has been uphill.
"It's so hard to get people to focus on oceans. It's much easier to focus on land and that bird and that bear," he said. "It's very hard to convince people that that big, beautiful, huge ocean that looks stunning has a problem. It's kind of 'out of sight, out of mind.' "
He said he hopes everyone joins the dialogue to work toward solutions, regardless of political affiliation. Everyone is affected by oceans and fisheries, he said.
"It can't be a liberal thing. It can't be a political thing," Danson said. "It cannot or we will lose -- all of us will lose."
