By Elizabeth Willoughby on
Orange County, California, kicked off this summer season with their largest fund raiser yet, The SeaChange Summer Party.
Held at a private estate on Laguna Beach, the event raised $1 million through ticket sales and auction to benefit Oceana, an organization that campaigns to protect and restore the world’s oceans. Actors Harrison Ford and Sam Waterston were honored at the event for their ongoing, significant ocean conservation efforts.
“We have done great things before in the human history,” said Ford. “We can do it again. Let’s not let this award be an empty vessel – let’s work for fundamental transformation – a real SeaChange in ocean policy.”
Several celebrities attended the event including Beau Bridges, Calista Flockhart, Diane Keaton, Diane Lane, Jeff Goldblum and Ted Danson.
Danson, who is a board member of Oceana, explained some of Oceana’s causes and projects to Variety:
“Basically, 70% of all the world’s fisheries have been fished to the brink of collapse; 30% of them have collapsed. Also habitat destruction: We have worked with fisheries and councils in the Northern Pacific and along the California coast to put aside 500,000 square miles of ocean floor the bottom trawler cannot make use of anymore.
“Also a pollution campaign that we have at Oceana – seafood contamination: one out of every six women of child bearing years has too much mercury in her system to safely give birth to a child without the possibility of neurological damage.
“These issues are so big, and there is a ticking clock.”
Due to the huge success of The SeaChange Summer Party, organizers are hoping it will become an annual fundraising event. So is Oceana.
Copyright © 2008 Look to the Stars
