Antonio Banderas Wants to Rock Your Boat | Oceana

Antonio Banderas Wants to Rock Your Boat

Press Release Date: October 2, 2009

Location: Washington

Contact:

Anna Baxter | email: abaxter@oceana.org
Anna Baxter

Actor Antonio Banderas has recorded nine Public Service Announcements for Oceana, the only international conservation group solely dedicated to protecting the oceans.

“I’m Antonio Banderas and I want to rock your boat,” Banderas says in one of the PSAs that will be offered to broadcasters in Spanish and in English in some of the locations where Oceana works: the United States, Chile and Spain.

In the PSAs, Banderas describes the effects of bottom trawling, a commercial fishing practice that destroys in just minutes entire acres of submarine coral gardens that took more than a thousand years to grow. This wholesale destruction leaves fish without crucial habitat to breed, eat and hide from predators.

“For centuries, we have treated the oceans with profound disrespect. We have fished species of marine life to extinction,” Banderas says in a PSA. “Commercial fishing practices called bottom trawling and dirty fishing destroy marine habitat and kill sea turtles, dolphins and other endangered marine life. Oceana has been fighting — and winning — to protect marine animals and ocean habitat.” Banderas, who is from Malaga, a seaside town in southern Spain, is a lover of the oceans.

“Antonio’s support means a great deal to Oceana,” said Oceana CEO Andrew Sharpless. “He has the unique ability to help Oceana achieve one of our key goals: building a worldwide base for the oceans – in the United States, in Spain and in Chile. My staff in Spain literally jumped and cheered when they saw the picture of him in an Oceana T-shirt recording the spots. We hope that this will get people all over North America, Latin America and Europe jumping with enthusiasm and signing up to help Oceana.”

Banderas volunteered to record the PSAs free of charge for Oceana, a non-profit, at the request of his friend and fellow actor Ted Danson, a member of Oceana’s Board of Directors. Danson’s organization, American Oceans Campaign, merged with the Ocean Law Project to form Oceana in 2000.

You care about our oceans? Then rock the boat; make some waves. Make your voice heard. At Oceana-dot-o-r-g. I’m Antonio Banderas and I’m an Oceana WaveMaker.”

The PSAs can be found (and downloaded) at www.oceana.org/banderas.