Recently we went into Manhattan to interview the writer and director of the new movie documentary "Sharkwater," Rob Stewart. We learned quite a bit about sharks from this interview and watching the movie.
Rob told us that he first became interested in sharks around the age of 9. Since then, he was frustrated by the misconceptions people have about sharks and decided to create a documentary to dispel the myths about sharks. He believes that people think of sharks as man-eating monsters. They are actually gentle creatures who do not want to harm people. He wants to teach people that sharks are not the predators but are the prey.
In many scenes in the film, he is swimming with the sharks. He told us about his ability to stay calm around sharks. "It is really exciting to see sharks. You get to see this animal that looks so totally different than every other animal on the planet. The sharks are so well designed and cool-looking that I get excited around them. When you film, you concentrate so much on the sharks that makes you a little calmer. It is important to stay calm around sharks so then the sharks will come close to you. Sharks can sense if you are really excited or scared. They can feel your heartbeat and that comes off as aggression to them."
We were amazed in one scene of the documentary, Rob is actually petting a shark for a few seconds before it swam away. We asked if he was ever bitten by a shark. Rob said, "No. I spent 200 days a year, for five years underwater with sharks. I was never threatened by a shark."
Sharks are caught for their fins. The process of "finning" involves cutting off the shark's fins and tossing the rest of the shark into the ocean. With no fins to swim with, the sharks sink to the bottom of the ocean and bleed to death. This process wastes over 95 percent of the shark's body. Watching this in the movie was quite disturbing.
We asked Rob about this process. He said, "I have seen it [finning] about three or four times. Each time it is equally powerful. It is just crazy how much waste is going on. Humans waste 54 billion pounds of fish every year, while 8 million people die of starvation, it is just absolutely crazy. What happens to sharks is incredibly cruel. What happens is sharks are pulled out of the water, their fins are cut off and the rest of the shark gets thrown back in the water. It is kind of like killing an elephant for ivory. I think if more people saw what was going on in the ocean, everything would change."
Rob Stewart also explains that sharks are essential to the food chain. He is concerned that nobody wants to save the shark, as they do other endangered species such as the panda. If people do not start trying to save the shark our entire ecosystem may be threatened. Rob hopes that this documentary will send a message out to the public and end the sharking finning process.
We asked him if this documentary is making a difference in the world. Rob said, "After 'Sharkwater' hit theaters in Canada and broke box office records, we got a ton of support for shark conservancy. About 5,000 people signed up and pledged to help save sharks on savingsharks.com."
Finally, we asked him if he thought it was worth the effort to make the movie? He said, "I do. 'Sharkwater' almost killed me about six times. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong, but it really became a beautiful thing because all the things that went wrong became part of the movie. I got a flesh-eating disease in my leg, I also had tuberculosis, dengue fever and West Nile Virus."
If you find "Sharkwater," playing at a theater, make sure you see it! It will change the way you feel about sharks.
