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CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LINK TO SHARKWATER
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Posted: Tuesday April 29, 2008, 11:53 am
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Robert R. (64) |
Tuesday April 29, 2008, 3:38 pm
Cool docu-film by Rob Stewart and Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd! |
Robert R. (64) |
Monday May 12, 2008, 5:26 am
Documentary sinks teeth into shark debate:
SHARKS have a reputation as fearsome killers yet more people are killed every year by falling soft-drink vending machines than by predators of Jaws fame.
That's one of the surprising statistics related by the director Rob Stewart in the documentary Sharkwater. Even more dramatic is the fact that 15,000 sharks will have been killed in the 90 minutes it takes for the film to screen.
"That's three sharks a second, 100 million a year," says the Canadian wildlife photographer who turned to filmmaking when he saw the devastating impact of longline fishing and finning - killing sharks for their fins and discarding the carcasses.
Shark numbers have dropped 90 per cent in the past 30 years. Stewart blames most of the decrease on the popularity of shark fin soup in Asia and Western Chinatowns.
"The practice of finning to create the shark fin soup is barbaric," he says.
"More than 75 per cent of the people surveyed on the ground don't know that shark fin soup has shark in it because the translation is fish wing soup."
Stewart, a 28-year-old who looks more like a Hollywood actor than a filmmaker and biologist, has lived through a lot since starting to make Sharkwater six years ago.
He was with the renegade conservationist and Greenpeace co-founder, Paul Watson, when they were arrested in Costa Rica for attempted murder after confronting fishermen working illegally. He has contracted flesh-eating disease, dengue fever and TB. And he was lost at sea for nine hours after surfacing from a dive two kilometres from where he was expected.
"Instead of coming back with a movie about pretty sharks, I came back with a movie about corruption and espionage and attempted murder and had to figure how on earth I was going to put all this together," he says.
In the award-winning film, Stewart argues that preserving shark numbers is more important than saving whales.
"If you wiped out all the whales, humanity wouldn't suffer greatly except for moral reasons," he says. "If you wiped out all the sharks, we're screwed.
"Below sharks sit phytoplankton, the animals that give us 70 per cent of the oxygen we breathe. They consume more carbon dioxide or global warming gases than anything else on earth. By removing sharks we're turning eco-systems - food pyramids - upside down and that's going to be a huge problem."
Stewart says sharks are not the fearsome killers many people think, arguing that out of the millions of swimmers and surfers who hit the water each year about five are killed by sharks. That's less than from customers shaking soft-drink machines either out of rage or to get a free drink, he says.
"Elephants kill over 100, hippos killed over 1000 last year."
Stewart believes shark attacks, while tragic, are usually an accident. "Sharks don't eat people," he says. "If they did eat people, the person wouldn't end up back on shore. If you get back on shore, it's because they're not interested in you and that's what inevitably happens." |
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AUTHOR: ROBERT R.
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male
committed relationship
Flitwick, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom
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| SHARES FROM ROBERT'S NETWORK |
| Jul 24 |
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Alert: PLEASE SIGN PEOPLE !!! IT'S VERY IMPORTANT !!! by Marla D.
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—
Message:-----------------
Please sign this very
important Petition
concerning Gross Human
Rights Abuse in America!
Here is the link to my
Petition - (Visit my page
& share with others)
http://www.thepetitionsit
e.com/petition/293806954
... more
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| Jul 23 |
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Blog: Congress Just Authorized World War III With Iran by Eric S.
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—
http://www.care2.com/c2c/
groups/disc.html?gpp=3626
&pst=506222&saved
=1
Congress just approved
the start of World War
III, and Republicans
cannot be blamed this
time, as Democrats are in
control.
Follow link and read the
details.
more
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— 50 Magickal Charms by
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Blog: Pampering Yourself With Herbs by Angel H.
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— Pampering Yourself With
HerbsBy Brenda HydeFrom
the moment you wake up
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