Award-winning actor Martin Sheen teamed up with conservation group Sea Shepherd on Saturday to launch a new ship and a new campaign against ocean pollution.
The captain of the "Martin Sheen" cracked a bottle of champagne on the side of the research vessel, which will focus on battling maritime litter like plastics in the world's oceans.
"Plastic has become the deadliest predator of the sea," the Golden Globe and Emmy-winning "Apocalypse Now" and "West Wing" actor told a crowd at the boat-christening ceremony in Marina Del Rey, just outside Los Angeles.
"If we fail to clean up the plastic mess that humans have made and stop the pollution... we face the potential extinction of many species of sea life."
The French captain of the boat described how its six crew had encountered masses of plastic debris in the middle of the Pacific, on their two-week journey from Hawaii to Los Angeles for the launch.
"It was very sad to see that even in the most remote place far away from any human beings, you can find so much pollution," said captain Oona Layolle, a veteran of five Sea Shepherd campaigns.
Sheen, 74, said more than a million birds and 100 million marine animals are believed to die each year from plastic pollution.
"Cleaning up the oceans is a major environmental imperative of our time... this vessel has a very specific mission and I cannot tell you how proud I am to be associated with it," he added.
Sea Shepherd said last month that it would switch its high-profile Southern Ocean campaign from whales to toothfish -- a rare species famed as "white gold" -- if Japan cancels this year's hunt in Antarctica.
But Sea Shepherd, which has spent a decade harassing the Japanese harpoon ships during the southern hemisphere summer, said it would still keep its eye on any whaling vessels.