A US film and television star has visited Bermuda in a bid to highlight plastic pollution of the seas.

An Instagram post on the trip has notched up more than a million views on Instagram, and attracted comments from other celebrities, including star actors Reese Witherspoon and Molly Ringwald.

Shailene Woodley, who starred in films Paper Towns and the Divergent film series, was on the island as part of a survey of the Sargasso Sea by environmental organisation Greenpeace.

The actress posted a video on social media site Instagram on Thursday that showed her in Bermuda and on board the Greenpeace flagship Esperanza.

She said in the video: “One of the most beautiful gifts I have been given in my life, is a platform, and I don’t think I need to be on that platform, telling people what to do, but I would like to think I could, or I hope I can, be a bridge between a base of information, knowledge and wisdom and a population of people who want access to that knowledge and information.”

Ms Woodley thanked Greenpeace for the chance to take part in the expedition. She said: “The high seas compose 71 per cent of the world’s oceans, and yet they are all ungoverned and unprotected. The reality of deep sea mining, unregulated fishing, rising water temperatures and plastic pollution is crippling for the future of not only our planet, but for the survival of human beings.”

Ms Woodley added: “The oceans provide us with roughly 50 per cent of the oxygen we breathe and they store carbon deep down in their cavernous bellies. It is crucial that the UN creates a treaty to protect at least 30 per cent of the worlds seas by 2030.”