I’m writing a story for Surfer Magazine about Great White sharks so I finally watched the critically-acclaimed documentary Sharkwater. It’s an absolute must-see. Biologist Rob Stewart dives with sharks around the world, showing that they’re far from the mindless monsters the media has portrayed them as. On the contrary, Stewart and other experts show that sharks are shy, sensitive creatures who kill fewer people per-year than elephants or — get this — vending machines falling on people. It’s such a crucial film for our time because sharks, in just a few decades, have gone from being the top-predator on earth to one of the most preyed up on. Sharks have survived on earth for more than 400 million years through five mass extinctions. They’re older than the dinosaurs. But their population has declined more than 90 percent due in large part to shark finning, the practice of killing sharks for their fins alone, which can fetch up to $300 per pound in Asia where shark fin soup is a delicacy. The finning industry (which wastes the entire shark except the fins) in combination with long-lining and other dubious fishing methods kill 100 million sharks per-year and could quickly decimate the shark population, which would throw off the entire ocean balance in devastating ways. If the top predator isn’t around, fish and seal populations could boom, hitting plankton populations which provide us with 70 percent of the oxygen we need to breathe. Stewart argues that protecting sharks is protecting ourselves and he teams up with Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd (see Whale Wars) to expose the illegal shark finning industry and more. The result is a harrowing adventure that will change your perspective of sharks forever. To learn more about sharks and what you can do to save them go to http://www.sharkwater.com/education.htm
Post a Comment