Ecowarrior Rob Stewart's spectacular film takes us swimming with the sharks, while uncovering the multi billion-dollar shark-fin trade that puts them and the world's eco-systems at risk.
It's not just about saving sharks. It's about saving ourselves.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2008
Sharkwater 2006
Underwater videographer, eco-warrior and hunk, Rob Stewart is passionate about sharks. Years in the making, his spectacular film puts us within snorkels' length of the ocean's unjustly demonised predators, then plumbs the depths of the multi billion-dollar shark-fin trade to show how over-harvesting sharks destroys the food chain and puts the world's ecosystems at risk.
"This beautiful and urgent eco-doc takes a bite out of the shark mythology made indelible by Jaws. Sharkwater argues that these ancient creatures are as friendly as dolphins, and relatively safe. But it also captures how poaching, which has escalated in the last 20 years due mostly to the popularity of shark-fin soup in Asia, has begun to decimate the earth's shark population. The director lands in the middle of his own corporate thriller when he's arrested in Costa Rica after uncovering its illegal shark-fin industry. Stewart is a true filmmaker (and a great underwater lenser), and he taps your inner sea hippie." — Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly.