The multi billion-dollar industry that preys on the ocean’s most ‘feared’ predator. By CATHERINE BISLEY.

A SHARK is finned alive and tossed back in the ocean: unable to swim it sinks to the bottom, blinking. I went to Sharkwater, the debut documentary of Canadian Rob Stewart, in the hope of ridding myself of a Jaws-induced terror of sharks. Commoditised by Steven Spielberg, this common, yet statistically irrational phobia, has kept my sea going to a shallow and fear filled minimum. Now, with summer only six months away, I have made the firm decision to liberate myself from the chlorinated and, let’s be honest, urinated, surroundings of the Kilbirnie Aquatic Centre. When The Lumière Reader offered to assist in allaying my – previously mentioned – statistically-irrational phobia, I quite naturally leaped at the opportunity. And it worked. The fear was gaffed, finned and finally drowned at full fathoms five.

Sharkwater contends that ninety percent of the ocean’s large predators have been wiped out: if anyone’s to be feared, it’s us. These finely tuned creatures play a vital role in the ocean’s eco-system. But sharks are not cute like pandas or seals or polar bears. No one cares: we would rather drive a shark than save one. Mainly set around Galapagos, Ecuador and Cocos, Costa Rica, Sharkwater is the paper the ink of Darwin’s Origin of Species was penned on.

The doco is not exclusively about sharks. In addition to the woes of other sea creatures caught in long-lining’s fatal tangle (i.e. practically everything in the sea that takes bait), the plight of the sea cucumber is also shown. Interviews with marine biologists and environmentalists are to the point and heartfelt. Stewart is no Michael Moore; all the diving has rendered him a buff dude and two bikini clad blonds giggle away as they describe the perils of the briny. Agro shark hunter Vic Hislop (need I say Australian) claims to have saved lives by killing gargantuan great whites. A man who owns a shark fin business regurgitates the same old fear banter. Sea Shepherd’s Paul Watson brands us bald and arrogant apes. Watson doesn’t have much faith in governments, but he does see people out there who are passionate about the environment and working for change.

The film includes absurd comparisons, such as; more people are killed by soda pop machines than by sharks each year. But it was the following point that put things into perspective for me: we are constantly in the vicinity of sharks when we swim, and we look remarkably similar to sick seals. Stewart asks us to consider how few shark attacks there are and to imagine how many people would be attacked if you went on your morning run with lions? Yes, sharks are highly evolved predators, but no, humans are not their prey. If they do go for a human it’s almost always a mistake. Stewart puts this message to practice: he hugs a large and blissful shark and later plays with some smaller cheeky ones. I now believe the great scene in Tim Winton’s Dirt Music where two men play with sharks using groper heads on strings.

Though he’s a tad egocentric, and despite the fact sentiment such as “If I learnt about them, I’d learn about life” isn’t my kinda thing, Stewart is an engaging guy. His passion for the subject is almost infectious: You have to stay calm when filming hammerheads, he explains, they can feel your heartbeat. Schools of wavering hammerheads and a shark puncturing a glimmering globe of fish provide some of the film’s most striking footage. Colourful footage of Galapagos’ diverse animal and marine populations illustrates how awesome HDV is. While sparingly used, there are, of course, distressing images: a whale shark (a toothless species) is hacked up in a pool of blood; a turtle is caught on a long-line. And, of course, there is the image I’ve already described – a live shark without a dorsal fin or tail thrown back into the ocean to die slowly.

This is not a dry documentary: there is high drama as Stewart joins Paul Watson on a Sea Shepherd mission. They attempt to arrest some fishermen who are illegally long lining off the coast of South America. Achieving zero success with words, they move on to water cannons, and finally resort to some good old fashioned ramming. When they arrive in Costa Rica, which has invited them to come and police Cocos, they are detained for attempted murder. Following a pungent whiff of corruption, Stewart breaks boat arrest and goes undercover to expose a massive illegal shark finning operation. Shark fins can be sold for US$200 a pound (second only to drug trafficking in terms filthy lucre) – the soup made from them is symbolic of wealth in Asian countries. Unfortunately for sharks, wealth is fashionable. It is also said that sharks have invincible health. And who doesn’t want to be invincible? The unlucky shark’s cartilage is used in many alternative health supplements. But the unfortunate sharks do get cancer – the health benefits are a myth.

I digress. The Costa Rican racket Stewart uncovers is run by the Taiwanese mafia; it’s an officials-(including-judges)-in-your-pocket kinda affair. Sea Shepherd and Stewart realise their chances of winning the trial are slim so make a break for international waters. Soon they are being pursued by the machine gun armed Costa Rican coast guard. This scene is brilliantly scored to Nina Simone’s ‘Sinnerman’ and intercut with images of an underwater feeding frenzy. They make it.

There are humorous moments too. The film includes extracts from a US Navy video on how to scare off a shark, the “enemy of man.” Techniques include slapping the water, putting your head underwater and shouting and, the piece-de-resistance, ripping up a piece of paper and scattering the bits around you (cue voice over “remember, you are smarter than the shark”).

I was surprised that Sharkwater brought me to the verge of tears. Incapacitated in Galapagos with a flesh eating disease, Stewart recovers and returns overland and undercover to Costa Rica where he finds people protesting against shark finning in the streets: the publicity surrounding their arrest and escape had roused the masses.

The whale was our monster of the deep before the shark gained supremacy (just look at Jonah and Melville). We need to rethink. Sharkwater exposes shark finning as a cruel and wasteful practice. It threatens a species that has been around for millions of years with extinction. You can’t chop off the head of a food chain and expect the eco-system it regulates to keep on working. And this could have dire ramifications for us – we rely on ocean life to convert carbon dioxide to oxygen. The final image is of Stewart free diving with sharks in Cocos; while I left the theatre largely free of shark fear it was another of those moments of deep disillusionment about the human race.

These restaurants have shark fin on the menu:

Big Thumb Restaurant, 9 Allen St, Wellington.
Dragons Chinese Restaurant, 25 Tory St, Wellington.
Yangtze Chinese Restaurant, 160 Willis St, Wellington

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