Susan Granger’s review of “Sharkwater” (Sharkwater Productions)
There’s more to sharks than “Jaws.” In fact, according to Toronto marine biologist and underwater photographer Rob Stewart, sharks aren’t at all the vicious man-killers we’ve been led to believe.
But they are predators – at the top of the marine food chain – and they’re facing extinction which may have dire consequences on the ecosystem.
In the past 30 years, the shark population has been depleted by 90%, primarily due to Asian consumers’ demand for shark-fin soup. For this $300-a-pound delicacy, fisherman utilize a long-line, stretching over miles of open ocean, to hook the sharks, then hack off their fins and heave them back in the water to die. While this gruesome poaching practice, known as ‘finning,’ is illegal in many countries, the laws are rarely enforced.
When Stewart boarded a trawler belonging to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a Greenpeace-like group led by activist Paul Watson, he experienced first-hand the frustration of dealing with illegal shark harvesting off Costa Rica’s coastline, uncovering a collaboration between that country’s government and Chinese crime syndicates..
But most memorable are Stewart’s vivid aquatic exploits, particularly awe-inspiring glimpses of hammerheads and tiger sharks congregating in the tepid waters off the Galapagos Islands. Stewart, literally, swims with sharks, even caressing them, and emerging unscathed. To him, they’re timid, curious creatures who’ve gotten a bad rep. He asserts that sharks bite, on average, five people a year, whereas elephants kill close to 100 and automobiles claim thousands of lives.
Unfortunately, this cautionary environmental documentary goes flaccid when Stewart is hospitalized with a blood infection and his self-centered, monotone narrative grows repetitious. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Sharkwater” is a stunning 7. During the time it takes to watch it, Stewart says, 15,000 sharks will be killed.
