The Canadian born photographer and filmmaker never held a video camera before he began the Sharkwater project — but that is not apparent when you see the film. On the contrary, the imagery is beautifully framed, inspiring, and stunningly breathtaking. The images that Stewart sets forth will awe you, and will capture your heart.
Stewart set out to create a film that would simply depict how beautiful sharks are in their natural habitat. The finished product, however, ended up evolving into so much more. Instead, we’re drawn into an amazing story of human drama, organized crime, corruption, and greed.
The film kicks off with clips from military training videos archived from the 1960s. As might be expected, they depict sharks as ruthless and bloodthirsty man-eaters. The clips belie the ignorance of their times with suggestions such as putting one’s face in the water and yelling to deter a marauding shark.
While it provides an almost humorous relief to the serious subject matter, it is important to realize that 40 years ago, these films were definitive and authoritative. Forty years ago, we held these precepts to be truth. We look back and laugh, because now we know better. …Or do we?
The chasm between reality and the popular beliefs sustained and fueled by exaggerated media is still enormous.
In reality, sharks do not eat people, and they are not mindless killers. As long as people view sharks as dangerous predators, they won’t care about saving them, and this is exactly what Rob Stewart hopes to change.
Early in the film, Stewart begins to debunk some of the mystery and fear around sharks as he holds and pets an eight foot long Caribbean reef shark as if it were a lapdog. From this point on, his understanding of sharks and his community with the underwater world is evident.
In an effort to capture even more compelling underwater footage of sharks, Stewart joins renowned conservationist Paul Watson and the controversial Sea Shepard team aboard the Ocean Warrior. The team is invited and implored by the President of Costa Rica to help patrol the waters surrounding Cocos Island, one of the places celebrated as a gathering area for sharks, and where illegal shark fishing often takes place.
Complete with colliding ships, gunboat chases, espionage, corrupt courts, and spurious charges of attempted murder, the adventure that ensues is nothing short of epic.
Organized crime and conspiracy surrounding the shark fin industry is deeply entrenched. With dried fins sometimes fetching in excess of $400USD per pound, it is a multi-billion dollar industry rife with greed and corruption.
But it is more than corrupt government officials, or the “shark-fin mafia” that threaten Stewart’s life. Shortly after the entire crew must hurriedly flee from Costa Rica, Stewart is diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, the “flesh-eating” disease. Rare but deadly, the disease threatens to claim Stewart’s leg, and possibly his life. Alone, with only hope by his side, Stewart remains bedridden in a Panamanian hospital for an agonizing week before doctors can make any prognosis.
Determined more than ever to make a difference, Stewart defies reason and returns to Costa Rica. Knowing he would be arrested on sight, he and his crew must sneak back into the country. Ironically, when they arrive in Puntarenas, they are able to blend in — Protesters line the streets, demonstrating against shark finning and illegal shark fisheries. “Costa Ricans were rallying for sharks. . . I realized our adventure had helped awaken a country”, remarks Stewart with renewed faith.
Over the next four years, Stewart shot more than 400 hours of footage in 15 different countries. In addition to interviews with shark and conservation experts like Erich Ritter, Patrick Moore, and Rex Weyler, Sharkwater includes commentary from average beachgoers, showing how desperately fear and hate of sharks are ingrained. As one Australian angrily believes, “they’re the scourge of the ocean, and everyone should go and catch one.”
Sharks have been an integral part of the oceanic ecosystem for 400 million years, but their populations have declined by more than 90% in the last 50 years alone. It is estimated that more than 100 million sharks are killed for their fins each year.
Shark finning is neither humane nor sustainable. Any shark is taken, regardless of size, age, or species. After its fins are cut off, the shark is thrown back into the water. Unable to swim, and bleeding to death, the shark suffers a slow and torturous death.
Much of the demand for the fins stems from shark fin soup, a traditional asian dish often served at weddings and special events. Once a rare delicacy consumed by Chinese aristocracy, the dish is viewed as a symbol of status and power, and is gaining in popularity as China continues to modernize and its 1.2 billion people become more affluent.
Indeed, there is an uphill battle to be fought, but there is hope.
The Sharkwater crew interviews one Chinese bride who, defying long tradition and facing cultural stigma, makes a statement by refusing to serve shark fin soup at her wedding banquet. We can only hope that this — what is now seen as a controversial decision — will eventually become the norm.
With its spellbinding cinematography and riveting story, Sharkwater has won awards at every film festival where it has appeared. Sharkwater will change the way people view sharks and the ocean. It will open their eyes. . . and, hopefully, their hearts. You can create pet chrome emblems with Shark image to create awareness too.
Filed under Save Sharks · Tagged with addition, adventure, age, aim, Alone, area, aristocracy, Asia, asian, attempt, Australia, author, average, awaken, awareness, awe, ban, battle, beautiful sharks, blood, bloodthirsty, board, boat, camera, capture, car, care, Caribbean, caribbean reef shark, catch, chasm, China, claim, Co, Cocos Island, commentary, community, conservation, conservationist, conspiracy, Continue, contrary, corruption, Costa Rica, country, crew, crime, dangerous predators, death, decision, decline, delicacy, demand, Determined, difference, disease, dish, dog, Dollar, drama, ear, ecosystem, effort, epic, Erich Ritter, ESP, espionage, EST, everyone, excess, expert, eye, face, faith, fear, film, filmmaker, fin, fin soup, finished product, Finning, fins, fish, fisheries, fishing, flesh, foot, footage, forty years, gathering, Government, greed, gunboat, habitat, heart, hold, hospital, human drama, humane, ignorance, image, imagery, Important, industry, Join, killer, land, lapdog, laugh, leg, life, line, mafia, man eaters, matter, military training, million years, mind, murder, mystery, natural habitat, nothing, ocean, ocean warrior, official, Organized, part, Patrick Moore, patrol, Paul Watson, photographer, place, point, popularity, population, pound, power, precepts, predators, President, product, prognosis, project, Protesters, Puntarenas, rat, rate, reality, reason, Red, reef, relief, renowned conservationist, rest, Rex Weyler, Rob Stewart, round, row, scourge, sea, sea shepard, serv, shark, shark fin soup, Shark Finning, shark fish, shark fisheries, shark fishing, Sharks, SHARKWATER, Shepard, ship, shot, showing, side, sight, size, soup, Species, stand, status, Stewart, story, symbol, system, tag, team, Tens, term, thing, threat, time, training, truth, turn, understanding, underwater footage, underwater world, US, USD, use, video, video camera, Warrior, water, way, Week, With, world, year, Your
he rapid decline of great sharks in the world’s oceans is disrupting the marine ecosystem by allowing more lowly fish to thrive, scientists warn today.
Overfishing of the ancient predators has lead to a sudden uprising of species they prey on, causing an abundance of skates, rays and smaller sharks, which are steadily devastating populations of shellfish, including scallops, oysters and clams, the researchers claim.
The findings suggest that the demise of the great sharks, whose primitive ancestors cruised the seas long before the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, may have unforeseen knock-on effects on marine life lower down the food chain.
Records from fisheries and research vessels dating from the 1970s to 2005 have revealed a dramatic nosedive in great shark populations. Tiger sharks and scalloped hammerheads may have declined more than 97% since the mid-1980s, while numbers of smooth hammerheads and bull sharks are believed to have fallen by 99% off the east coast of the US.
Writing in the journal Science, a team of marine biologists led by Ran Myers at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, analyse fish research surveys over the past 16 to 35 years. The records show that while the abundance of 11 great shark species fell dramatically over the past 35 years, 12 of the 14 fish species they prey on had increased sharply.
In the waters along the US Atlantic coast, numbers of cownose rays, a staple of the great shark diet that can grow to four feet across, jumped 8% a year to an estimated population of around 40 million.
The explosion of the cownose population coincides with an almost complete collapse of scallops in the waters, leaving only those protected behind marine fences for local fisheries to take.
Without sharks to keep their numbers in check, researchers fear the migrating rays will drive down shellfish populations as they swim through, to the point where they are unable to recover .
Julia Baum, a co-author of the paper, said: “With fewer sharks around, the species they prey upon, like cownose rays, have increased in numbers, and in turn, hordes of cownose rays dining on scallops, have wiped the scallops out.”
Sharks are targeted by fisheries for their fins and meat, but are also taken as by-catch by fleets fishing for tuna and swordfish. As many as 73 million sharks are killed each year around the globe for the finning trade.
Ellen Pikitch, executive director of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science in Miami, said: “This is the first published field experiment to demonstrate that the loss of sharks is cascading through ocean ecosystems and inflicting collateral damage on food fisheries such as scallops. These unforeseen and devastating impacts underscore the need to take a more holistic, ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management.”
Charles Peterson, a researcher on the paper and marine biologist at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, said the study highlighted the importance of maintaining populations of the ocean’s top predators. “Despite the vastness of the oceans, its organisms are interconnected, meaning that changes at one level have implications several steps removed. Through our work, the ocean is not so unfathomable, and we know better now why sharks matter,” he added.
In British waters, historic overfishing has seen the common ray decline to the point that surveys in the western channel have failed to spot any since the 1930s. More recently, numbers of blue and porbeagle sharks are believed to have fallen. The porbeagles are believed to be taken by Danish and French fleets, while Spanish long-line vessels take blue sharks migrating into British waters.
Last year, a team lead by David Sims of the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth tagged six blue sharks off the coast of Portugal to investigate their fate. Two were landed by fisheries within three months. “The ones that get here may be the survivors,” he said.
Dr Sims said the lack of hard data makes it extremely difficult to produce reliable assessments of fish populations, adding that many predators have such varied diets that cascade effects through ecosystems are complex and often difficult to pinpoint.
“There’s no doubt the fisheries are having an impact on the big shark populations, but what we really don’t know is what the ecosystem effects of that will be. There could be other factors involved that haven’t been measured,” he added.
Filed under Save Sharks · Tagged with abundance, age, aim, anal, analyse, approach, assessment, Association, Atlantic, Atlantic Coast, author, Big sharks, Biological, biologist, blue, blue sharks, British, bull, bull sharks, car, Carolina, cascade, catch, cent, chain, channel, Chapel Hill, Charles Peterson, check, claim, Co, co-author, coast, collapse, collateral, cownose, cownose rays, Dalhousie, dalhousie university in halifax nova scotia, damage, Data, David Sims, day, decline, demise, diet, dinosaurs, Director, Don, doubt, Dr Sims, drama, drive, ear, ecosystem, effect, Ellen Pikitch, ESP, EST, Exec, experiment, explosion, fact, fall, fall of the dinosaurs, fate, fear, field, fin, finding, Finning, fins, fish, fish species, fisheries, fisheries management, fishing, fleet, food, globe, Great, Halifax, halifax nova scotia, hammerhead, head, impact, importance, Institute, journal, journal science, Julia Baum, lack, land, lateral, level, life, line, List, loss, management, Marine, marine biologists, marine ecosystem, matter, mean, meat, Miami, mid, mid 1980s, mouth, need, North, nosedive, Nova Scotia, number, ocean, ocean ecosystems, overfishing, oysters and clams, paper, Pew, Plymouth, point, population, porbeagle, Porbeagles, Portugal, predators, prey, primitive ancestors, protect, Ran Myers, rapid decline, rat, rate, ray, Red, research, research surveys, research vessels, researcher, rise, round, row, scalloped hammerheads, Science, sea, shark, shark populations, shark species, Sharks, sharks disappearing, shell, shellfish, skate, skates, Species, spite, staple, study, swordfish, system, tag, target, team, tiger, tiger shark, Tiger Sharks, today, trade, tuna, turn, University, uprising, US, vessel, water, With, work, world, year
SHARKWATER FILM
The Canadian born photographer and filmmaker never held a video camera before he began the Sharkwater project — but that is not apparent when you see the film. On the contrary, the imagery is beautifully framed, inspiring, and stunningly breathtaking. The images that Stewart sets forth will awe you, and will capture your heart.
Stewart set out to create a film that would simply depict how beautiful sharks are in their natural habitat. The finished product, however, ended up evolving into so much more. Instead, we’re drawn into an amazing story of human drama, organized crime, corruption, and greed.
The film kicks off with clips from military training videos archived from the 1960s. As might be expected, they depict sharks as ruthless and bloodthirsty man-eaters. The clips belie the ignorance of their times with suggestions such as putting one’s face in the water and yelling to deter a marauding shark.
While it provides an almost humorous relief to the serious subject matter, it is important to realize that 40 years ago, these films were definitive and authoritative. Forty years ago, we held these precepts to be truth. We look back and laugh, because now we know better. …Or do we?
The chasm between reality and the popular beliefs sustained and fueled by exaggerated media is still enormous.
In reality, sharks do not eat people, and they are not mindless killers. As long as people view sharks as dangerous predators, they won’t care about saving them, and this is exactly what Rob Stewart hopes to change.
Early in the film, Stewart begins to debunk some of the mystery and fear around sharks as he holds and pets an eight foot long Caribbean reef shark as if it were a lapdog. From this point on, his understanding of sharks and his community with the underwater world is evident.
In an effort to capture even more compelling underwater footage of sharks, Stewart joins renowned conservationist Paul Watson and the controversial Sea Shepard team aboard the Ocean Warrior. The team is invited and implored by the President of Costa Rica to help patrol the waters surrounding Cocos Island, one of the places celebrated as a gathering area for sharks, and where illegal shark fishing often takes place.
Complete with colliding ships, gunboat chases, espionage, corrupt courts, and spurious charges of attempted murder, the adventure that ensues is nothing short of epic.
Organized crime and conspiracy surrounding the shark fin industry is deeply entrenched. With dried fins sometimes fetching in excess of $400USD per pound, it is a multi-billion dollar industry rife with greed and corruption.
But it is more than corrupt government officials, or the “shark-fin mafia” that threaten Stewart’s life. Shortly after the entire crew must hurriedly flee from Costa Rica, Stewart is diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, the “flesh-eating” disease. Rare but deadly, the disease threatens to claim Stewart’s leg, and possibly his life. Alone, with only hope by his side, Stewart remains bedridden in a Panamanian hospital for an agonizing week before doctors can make any prognosis.
Determined more than ever to make a difference, Stewart defies reason and returns to Costa Rica. Knowing he would be arrested on sight, he and his crew must sneak back into the country. Ironically, when they arrive in Puntarenas, they are able to blend in — Protesters line the streets, demonstrating against shark finning and illegal shark fisheries. “Costa Ricans were rallying for sharks. . . I realized our adventure had helped awaken a country”, remarks Stewart with renewed faith.
Over the next four years, Stewart shot more than 400 hours of footage in 15 different countries. In addition to interviews with shark and conservation experts like Erich Ritter, Patrick Moore, and Rex Weyler, Sharkwater includes commentary from average beachgoers, showing how desperately fear and hate of sharks are ingrained. As one Australian angrily believes, “they’re the scourge of the ocean, and everyone should go and catch one.”
Sharks have been an integral part of the oceanic ecosystem for 400 million years, but their populations have declined by more than 90% in the last 50 years alone. It is estimated that more than 100 million sharks are killed for their fins each year.
Shark finning is neither humane nor sustainable. Any shark is taken, regardless of size, age, or species. After its fins are cut off, the shark is thrown back into the water. Unable to swim, and bleeding to death, the shark suffers a slow and torturous death.
Much of the demand for the fins stems from shark fin soup, a traditional asian dish often served at weddings and special events. Once a rare delicacy consumed by Chinese aristocracy, the dish is viewed as a symbol of status and power, and is gaining in popularity as China continues to modernize and its 1.2 billion people become more affluent.
Indeed, there is an uphill battle to be fought, but there is hope.
The Sharkwater crew interviews one Chinese bride who, defying long tradition and facing cultural stigma, makes a statement by refusing to serve shark fin soup at her wedding banquet. We can only hope that this — what is now seen as a controversial decision — will eventually become the norm.
With its spellbinding cinematography and riveting story, Sharkwater has won awards at every film festival where it has appeared. Sharkwater will change the way people view sharks and the ocean. It will open their eyes. . . and, hopefully, their hearts. You can create pet chrome emblems with Shark image to create awareness too.
Filed under Save Sharks · Tagged with addition, adventure, age, aim, Alone, area, aristocracy, Asia, asian, attempt, Australia, author, average, awaken, awareness, awe, ban, battle, beautiful sharks, blood, bloodthirsty, board, boat, camera, capture, car, care, Caribbean, caribbean reef shark, catch, chasm, China, claim, Co, Cocos Island, commentary, community, conservation, conservationist, conspiracy, Continue, contrary, corruption, Costa Rica, country, crew, crime, dangerous predators, death, decision, decline, delicacy, demand, Determined, difference, disease, dish, dog, Dollar, drama, ear, ecosystem, effort, epic, Erich Ritter, ESP, espionage, EST, everyone, excess, expert, eye, face, faith, fear, film, filmmaker, fin, fin soup, finished product, Finning, fins, fish, fisheries, fishing, flesh, foot, footage, forty years, gathering, Government, greed, gunboat, habitat, heart, hold, hospital, human drama, humane, ignorance, image, imagery, Important, industry, Join, killer, land, lapdog, laugh, leg, life, line, mafia, man eaters, matter, military training, million years, mind, murder, mystery, natural habitat, nothing, ocean, ocean warrior, official, Organized, part, Patrick Moore, patrol, Paul Watson, photographer, place, point, popularity, population, pound, power, precepts, predators, President, product, prognosis, project, Protesters, Puntarenas, rat, rate, reality, reason, Red, reef, relief, renowned conservationist, rest, Rex Weyler, Rob Stewart, round, row, scourge, sea, sea shepard, serv, shark, shark fin soup, Shark Finning, shark fish, shark fisheries, shark fishing, Sharks, SHARKWATER, Shepard, ship, shot, showing, side, sight, size, soup, Species, stand, status, Stewart, story, symbol, system, tag, team, Tens, term, thing, threat, time, training, truth, turn, understanding, underwater footage, underwater world, US, USD, use, video, video camera, Warrior, water, way, Week, With, world, year, Your