Remember Ted Danson? He’s a very, very old and washed-up TV actor who used to play a bartender named Sam “Mayday” Malone on a popular show called “Cheers,” back when Shelley Long was famous and Kirstie Alley was attractive. Then he started dating Whoopie Goldberg, completely lost it, and appeared on stage in blackface at a Friar’s Club “roast” of the aforementioned dreadlock-comic.
Smooth move, Ted. Spike Lee was not impressed, and his career never really recovered. (The slide into obscurity was, of course, greased by “Becker,” a TV series whose only redeeming feature was not Ted Danson.) But since then, Ted has reinvented himself as an environmental advocate, crusading for ocean protection.
How’s that going?
Here’s Danson, in a column published yesterday by the BBC in London:
[P]ollution isn’t the biggest problem facing the oceans, though it is certainly important.
It’s overfishing. We’re just taking too many fish out of the sea.
Since 1950, 90% of the big predator fish – your swordfish, your shark – have disappeared … Even as a lay person, not a scientist, it’s abundantly clear to me that overfishing is pushing our oceans towards an irreversible collapse.
That’s some scary stuff, Ted. Irreversible collapse, you say? Overfishing? No more fish in the sea? I bet you don’t eat fish, right? ‘Cause — you know — that would be highly irregular. Hypocritical, some might say.
London’s Telegraph newspaper gave him a perfect platform to argue for saving the oceans from overfishing this morning, but all he wanted to talk about was saving sharks. Saving sharks? I guess he’s never seen “Jaws.” That big Great White sucka would eat Sam Malone, Diane Chambers, Coach, Woody, Norm, Cliff, and Carla if we gave it half a chance.
Mr. Danson said current controls on shark fishing in Europe are “grossly inadequate”.
However the actor did not urge Brits to give up on their national dish altogether, just to check that rock salmon is not in the ingredients and to join the campaign to try to increase controls on shark fishing around Europe.
He added: “I love fish and I love fish and chips. I am not going to stop eating fish and chips. Not eating fish and chips is not going to have an impact necessarily. What is needed is to become an activist to try to get the policy changed on shark fishing.”
Gotcha. Sam Malone says we’re killing the oceans by eating too much fish. But we’ve gotta keep it up. ‘Cause fish-and-chips are just so deeeeeelicious!
Thanks for clearing that up, Sam! (I liked you better in blackface.)
Bonus Points, just for fun: The whole “Cheers” theme song and opening credits. Weren’t the ’80s fun, back before Ted Danson got all serious about himself?
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Fish and Chips is primarily made of Cod and “Cod are currently at risk from overfishing,” and
“In 2000, cod was placed on the list of endangered species by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), an international non-governmental organization for the conservation, research and restoration of the natural environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund. The WWF issued a report [14] stating that global cod catch had suffered a 70 per cent drop over the last 30 years, and that if this trend continued, the world’s cod stocks would disappear in 15 years. The endangered species claim by the WWF was disputed by Åsmund Bjordal, director of the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research [15] who stated that in view of the health of the Barents Sea cod population, cod should not be placed on an endangered species list. Cod is among Norway’s most important fishery export items and the Barents Sea is the most important cod fishery of Norway. In a 2004 report [16], the WWF agreed that the Barents Sea cod fishery appeared to be healthy but that that may not last due to illegal fishing, industrial development, and high fishing quota.
According to Seafood Watch, cod is currently on the list of fish that sustainability-minded American consumers should avoid. In a book on the subject, Charles Clover claims that cod is only an example of how modern unsustainable fishing industry is destroying oceans’ ecosystems”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod
Nothing says tasteful satire like blackface.
http://i38.tinypic.com/2qixrmf.jpg
Just for a bit of controversy in the comments, I should probably point out that overfishing is actually considerably harder on sharks than many other types of fish because sharks have a considerably slower reproductive rate and therefore don’t recover from population shocks as easily.
This is not to say that cod overfishing is *not* a serious issue, only that shark overfishing is probably a *more* serious issue.
Oh, sure…. but only if you like sharks more than cod.
I often wonder why we get so selective about which marine species we care about. Like the “dolphin safe tuna” campaigns? People got all worked up about making sure we spared dolphins while killing tunas. What about the tunas?
If it weren’t for that damned “Flipper” show in the 1960s, nobody would have cared one way or another.
Isn’t this the same oceanographer who claimed that the oceans would no longer exist in ten years? Of course, that was in 1998 and now he chalks it up to hyperbole so as to bring the issue to the forefront. So, how much of this new claim is just hyperbole?
Washed up actor? Get your facts straight. Danson is nominated for an Emmy for his outstanding performance on the US show, “Damages”. Watch the Emmy Awards next week. Danson has also been involved in ocean conservation for over 20 years. He founded American Oceans Campaign, which later evolved into Oceana. He now serves as an active board member of the global organization – you can learn his story here: http://www.Oceana.org/support.
Danson is truly passionate about this issue and would never argue what people should or shouldn’t do in their personal lives when it comes to seafood consumption. What he has said is – chose responsibly when you can, but at the end of the day the thing that is going to make the biggest difference is being an advocate and influencing policy. Like the comment above states – read End of the Line by Charles Clover. Talk to any marine biologist as well and they will tell you that our oceans are in terrible trouble.
He’s clearly out of his mind, and can’t get his facts or opinions straight. You’d THINK that celebs would quit flip-flopping back and forth and maybe get a better handle on a rep who will keep you from contradicting yourself over and over!
Ted Danson is my kind of activist. The only thing he needs to do now is attend one of the save-the-whatever-fish-of-the-month meetings with the Gorton’s fisherman or a sampler tray from Long John Silver’s.
Nothing says “stop overfishing” like a dribble of fish grease on your chin, Ted.
Gawd – if these people could not ‘act’ what kind of jobs would they hold? Do they ever think about what they are saying?
Obviously Nurzu, you are missing the point. His hypocrisy goes like this
1) Over fishing is happening because we eat a lot of fish (fish don’t have fur….wish they did because a fish-fur jacket would be awesome!)
2) He is an advocate to reduce over fishing and over fishing is caused by carnivorous consumption of tasty little fishies
3) Ergo, we should not eat as much fish (well except Fish and Chips because they is tasty fishes)
“Not eating fish and chips is not going to have an impact necessarily. What is needed is to become an activist… ”
So he is advicating no one change their behaviors but instead become an advocate because talking about doing something is much more effective then actaully doing something! It’s all so clear to me now…Thank you Mr. Danson
Interestingly enough, my dad is in the save-the-fishies, or at least the save-enough-fishies-so-they-can-reproduce-and-we-can-still-eat-them, business. Overfishing of some species IS a real problem (or if you will, demand outpacing the fish’s ability to adequately reproduce). Fish out in the ocean are not like trees in a forest you can easily replant. There are too many variables that can affect the fish’s ability to be fruitful and multiply, some of which we can’t control. That isn’t to say don’t eat fish at all. There’s still farmed fish and not all species are in trouble. But if codfish isn’t allowed to rebuild its numbers so to speak, the fishermen who depend on them for a living and consumers are SOL.
However, I don’t care about the sharks.
I care about the sharks.
Sharks are flipping awesome.
Keeps the rabid surfer population in check, too.
“Keeps the rabid surfer population in check, too.”
I lol’d
Leave the poor loser alone! It’s not like he eats dolphin-flavored tuna or the like. Who doesn’t enjoy a lovely dolphin-flavored tuna sandwich?
Besides, I seem to recall that back in the late 1980s he said that in 10 years the oceans would be devoid of life. Last I checked there are still plenty of fish and whales and dolphins and sharks eating tourists in the oceans.
Ted “Mayday” Danson is just the top of the iceberg (as if we had any left thanks to alleged “global warming”) when it comes to Hollywood elitists saying stupid things that the Lefties tell them. They’re ACTORS (more or less)! They are very good at telling you stuff that someone made up in such a way that you believe it. The reason they are entertainers instead of someone doing something productive is because they are incapable of knowing or doing something productive.
I’m still waiting for Ted Danson’s prediction of all sea life becoming extinct so I can go back to the beach without something stinging, biting, gnawing, etc. on me. Just like I’m waiting for the “paperless office” that IBM promised us in 1980 — but that’s a different story.
I’m waiting for rocket cars/personal TIE fighters. Jet packs. Vacations on the moon. And “Westworld” in that order.
IBM can jam it. Damn liars.
Actually I kinda agree with him. It’s like when vegans go haywire over people eating meat because killing animals is wrong, like not eating meat (already dead animals) is going to make already dead animal any less dead (it ain’t like the vegans are killing them theirselves..or are they?) . I don’t think he’s saying people should stop eating fish/fishing period, as he OBVIOUSLY likes fish, just stop fishing as much. Going by the qutoes in this article, he’s blaming “overfishing” and not fishing in general.
This is the one celebrity blog I actually give a flying about (besides any other ones that may post hot pictures), but I think this article was a slight misinterpretation.