Free Screening Set for 'The Smog of the Sea'

(Press Release)_Loggerhead Marinelife Center will host a free public screening of The Smog of the Sea, a documentary from filmmaker Ian Cheney and original score by Jack Johnson, on Friday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. The 30-minute film chronicles a research expedition through the Sargasso Sea and the global issue of plastic marine pollution.
 
Prior to the screening, LMC will hold a beach clean-up from 5:30-6:30 p.m. on Juno Beach. Light bites will also be offered before the screening.
 
For more information contact Tommy Cutt, LMC’s chief conservation officer at tcutt@marinelife.org.
 
About the film
 
The Smog of the Sea chronicles a one-week journey through the remote waters of the Sargasso Sea. Marine scientist Marcus Eriksen invited onboard an unusual crew to help him study the sea: renowned surfers Keith and Dan Malloy, musician Jack Johnson, spearfisher woman Kimi Werner and bodysurfer Mark Cunningham become citizen scientists on a mission to assess the fate of plastics in the world’s oceans.
 
After years of hearing about the famous “garbage patches” in ocean gyres, the crew is stunned to learn that the patches are a myth: the waters stretching to the horizon are clear blue, with no islands of trash in sight. But as the crew sieves the water and sorts through their haul, a more disturbing reality sets in: a fog of microplastics permeates the world’s oceans, trillions of nearly invisible plastic shards making their way up the marine food chain. You can clean up a garbage patch, but how do you stop a fog?
 
Using nostalgic super-8 footage, sparkling underwater cinematography, an original score by Jack Johnson and shipmate Simon Beins and live action footage of the crew’s research, The Smog of the Sea provides a new perspective on the once pristine oceans, and makes an artful call to action for rethinking the scourge of the sea — single-use plastic. Directed by Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Ian Cheney (King Corn, The City Dark, The Search for General Tso).
                                                                                                                             
“As someone who loves and lives in the ocean, I couldn’t be more excited to have participated in 5 Gyres’ SEA Change Expedition,” Jack Johnson said. “I look forward to raising awareness of the importance of reducing our dependency on single-use plastics.”
 
Singer-songwriter, surfer and longtime ocean lover Jack Johnson has been affecting ocean health worldwide by supporting plastic-free initiatives through his social action network All At Once and his Johnson Ohana Foundation.
 
The three-leg expedition marked 5 Gyres’ 16th expedition, having sailed around the world once already to document the global impact of plastic marine pollution. In December 2014, 5 Gyres published the first global estimate on plastic pollution, finding 270,000 metric tons from 5.25 trillion particles of plastic.
 
“What we know now is that plastic in the ocean quickly shreds into microplastics and joins the SMOG of plastic polluting our oceans,” said Dr. Marcus Eriksen, 5 Gyres co-founder and director of research. “This new research revelation is driving solution inland, to the top of the watershed where the problem starts. But we need to return to sea, to educate crews, understand more and monitor our successes on land.”