Interview with director Rob Stewart

With the killing of sharks going largely unnoticed, documentary filmmaker Rob Stewart made Sharkwater, a gripping and troubling look into how the population of sharks is being decimated by illegal finning and greed. I talked to the director about the hardships he endured while making the film, his troubles with foreign governments and if anything has now changed for this species since his movie came out in 2007.

Was it a bigger challenge mentally or physically in regards to the making of Sharkwater?

Way harder mentally, no question. Sharkwater was my first film and I really had no idea what I was doing or what I was getting into. I thought it sounded like fun and would be easy and low and behold four years later I still wasn’t done and it was almost six full years before I was able to get the movie down and out there. The whole process was a massive learning curve for me, how to make a movie and how to get the confidence to learn to tell a story that people would be interested in seeing.

In fact, because I was so new and no one seemed to care I almost gave up on the movie two or three times. It was getting very stressful with all these people counting on me and all this money on the line but in the end it all worked out and I wouldn’t change a thing. Trial by fire was a great way to learn.

So what was it that first attracted you to sharks?

Well, as a young kid I thought they were the coolest thing ever. They seemed so powerful but graceful as well, and since they had been around so long they seemed to me to be invincible. I loved how they moved through the water and as I got older became even more impressed with just how important they were to the ocean’s ecosystem as the top predator.

The problems you came across in Costa Rica were incredible. Have you been allowed back now that you have finished the movie?

I actually went back to Costa Rica last year as I have a friend who is living down there now but before I left I made a bunch of phone calls to see if I was still on anyone’s list or even some immediate arrest list. Thankfully, I wasn’t on anyone’s list and I got in and out the country just fine, which was a huge relief.

How frustrating is it for you to still hear people describe sharks as monsters or nothing more than killing machines?

It’s not that frustrating at all and most of the time it has more to do with people not having the proper information to make a better decision, especially in the current situation. Being a filmmaker allows me the chance to help educate people and hopefully make an impact in dismissing some of the myths while at the same time getting us as human beings to better appreciate the world in which we live.

So what do you think is the next step in trying to get sharks in general more protection?

Right now we are working on getting a worldwide ban on shark fining (for those who don’t know, shark fining is when the shark is caught, all of its fins are cut off for profit and it is thrown back into the ocean, a lot of times still alive). When Sharkwater was first released there were only about fifteen countries that had banned shark fining. Now, with all the attention the movie brought to the illegal industry, every country in the world has banned fining.

However, shark fins themselves are still not illegal so you can go into a market and buy them or into a restaurant and order the soup. The next step is for it to be illegal to have shark fins in your possession for any reason and that is an ongoing fight as we speak.

Another fishing practice that caught my eye during the movie was long line fishing. Is that something that is being investigated like fining?

I think fining and the illegal ownership of fins is still a ways off from being completed before people move onto other offenders. Long line fishing may look bad but it is not the biggest offender by far. There is something called trawl netting, which has these giant nets dragging the ocean floor and literally scooping up everything in its path. If we are going to survive on this planet then that should not exist at all. It is one of the top goals for conservation societies around the world right now to get the banned completely.

What kind of feedback have you received for Sharkwater and also, how many people have said they had no idea this was happening to sharks?

The feedback has been huge. When the movie came out in 2007 we first had all these conservation societies approach us then people from around the world began to get outraged and sign petitions in their individual countries. As a filmmaker and storyteller it was really the dream scenario.

The atrocities happening to sharks worldwide at that time, with little to no interest from most government bodies, it really outraged a lot of people and they stood up and let that be known and it was really a wonderful thing to watch develop from one side of the world to the other.

What things did you learn from your time with Paul Watson?

I learned from Paul Watson to not give a shit about the status quo in the world. There are rules out there that have been made by people who do not have the best interests of the world and its future at heart. He was not at all interested in anyone else’s opinions and just went with what he thought was right. It was quite inspiring actually, to be around someone who would not let some antiquated rule or personal greed stand in his way.

Watching the movie I had the sense that people had little to no interest in what was happening to sharks. Have you seen that opinion change in the last few years?

Yeah, it has changed dramatically. People now love sharks, think they are cool, research them and ask questions about them. The movie also came out at a great time, right around the explosion of social media and Facebook in particular People started connecting around the world about the movie and shark conservation. Sharks went from cool but scary to just cool. Even with a large percentage of the population still having their doubts or fears there is a big enough collection of people now to get the word out and make a difference.

It was disturbing to see how few safe havens sharks had back in 2007. Has that improved or are they still few and far in between?

No, that has really improved. There are now more places around the world where sharks can feel safe, or as safe as they can be, and it’s a big improvement over how things were back when we were making the movie. Also, countries are beginning to discover that it is worth more to them in tourist dollars to have sharks alive so that also helps.

It is the goal for conservation societies around the world to have ten percent of the ocean declared a safe haven for sharks and while that would be fantastic we are only at about one percent right now so we still have a ways to go.

GCE: Obviously a movie like Jaws had a big impact on the public’s perception of what sharks are really like. What kind of effect has the entertainment industry had on sharks in general?

They have had a huge impact and up until the past few years it hasn’t been that great. The problem with Jaws is that it is such a great movie, you can’t just dismiss it and hope it will go away. However, people saw that shark and made up their mind then and there that all sharks were monsters, that they were bad and we needed to get them before they got us.

Television was bad for quite awhile as well. The shows that were on about sharks showed them in quite a bad light and it was very hard to change the minds of those in charge because people liked watching that version of sharks and it sold advertising dollars.

Now, slowly, both TV and movies are coming around and people are finally getting to see the other side of sharks that they have never seen before.