The feature film for Sharkwater – internationally award winning documentary by Rob Stewart For Rob Stewart, exploring sharks began as an underwater adventure.What it turned into was a dangerous journey into the balance of life on earth. Driven by passion fed from a lifelong fascination with sharks, Stewart debunks historical stereotypes of sharks as bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters and reveals the reality of sharks as pillars in the evolution of the seas.
Filmed in visually stunning, high definition video, Sharkwater takes you into the most shark rich waters of the world, exposing the exploitation and corruption surrounding the worlds shark populations in the marine reserves of Cocos Island, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.
In an effort to protect sharks, Stewart teams up with renegade conservationist Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Their unbelievable adventure begins with a battle between the Sea Shepherd boat and shark poachers in Guatemala, resulting in pirate boat rammings, gunboat chases, mafia espionage, corrupt court systems and attempted murder charges, forcing them to flee for their lives.
Through it all, Stewart discovers these magnificent creatures have gone from predator to prey. Each year 100 million sharks are caught to meet the demand for shark fin soup in Asia. Despite surviving the earths history of mass extinctions, sharks could easily be wiped out within a few years due to human greed.
Destruction of shark populations is a major problem for oceanic ecosystems, and all life on earth, as 70% of our oxygen comes from life in the seas. Stewarts journey of courage and determination changes from a mission to save the worlds sharks into a fight for his life, and that of humankind.