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Out of one young man’s love for sharks grows a wonderful documentary about sharks that will change the way you view the oceans, the life in them, and the importance of the sharks forever.

Sharkwater begins with biologist/filmmaker Rob Stewart telling us about his lifelong love of sharks, and that “the one animal we fear the most, is the one animal we can’t live without.” Rob Stewart grew up with a love of the ocean, and got to experience swimming with sharks at a young age. He later became an underwater photographer and biologist.

The movie starts underwater, with Stewart narrating, teaching us about sharks as you watch some of these gentle natured creatures swimming around him. A good majority of the movie is underwater scenes, but there is much more to Sharkwater  than watching fish swim for two hours. The interviews dispersed throughout are very interesting, and act as intellectual highlights rather than boring filler. Dr. Samuel Gruber, a shark biologist, tells us that elephants kill more people every year than sharks do. And Dr. Erick Ritter, a shark behaviorist, explains how sharks hardly bite at all…. That it actually takes effort to make a shark come to you and get it to bite something. He believes all the fear about how dangerous sharks are is due to media.

The movie has wonderful location shots. There is a bit of filming done on Galapagos Island, one of the last remaining safe havens for sharks. There are two underwater volcanoes, Darwin and Wolf, one of the few places where Hammerhead sharks congregate in schools. The footage he got in that area is simply stunning. He explains that the Hammerhead is actually a very shy shark, and in fact there are is no record of a death caused by one. The same time he was shooting footage of the Hammerheads, on the way back to the main islands, Stewart and his crew found a long line fishing boat. (Illegal in that area.) That day he saw over 160 sharks that had been accidentally killed…. He said it felt like watching his family die. That day was what made him want to make this film.

We follow Stewart as he joins forces with Paul Watson, an original activist of Greenpeace, as they go to Costa Rica to investigate illegal shark fishing. What ensues are boat chases, and the crew being wrongfully arrested and charged… all because of the shark fin business being run in that area. Shark fins fetch a high price, and sharks are being hunted and slaughtered at an alarming rate. A little later, after going back to Costa Rica, instead of finding the shark fin mafia, he found local protests about shark fishing. The publicity that he and his crew accidentally raised had brought awareness to the people of the area.

The special features include a couple of interesting tidbits. One is Shark Defense, which is a short film made in 1964 by the US Air Force, instructing us on how to defend ourselves in the water if a shark is near. It is down right hilarious, but also sad. To think people believed some of the things, like smacking the water to make noise, and yelling into the water to scare sharks away.

The other notable feature is titled “Sharkwater: Beneath the Surface,” in which Stewart explains that he set out to make a beautiful film that would show how beautiful sharks are. He never expected it to turn into a human drama that would nearly kill him in the process. What he found out about the treatment of sharks shocked him and influenced how the film grew in the four and a half years of its production.

This film is a must see for ocean lovers and shark fans alike. There are bloody scenes at times, but they are there for a reason. I have always been a fan of ocean creatures, especially sharks. I found this film wonderful, informative, and enlightening. I believe this to be an important movie for everyone to see.

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