This past Thursday, I went to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) to meet wildlife photographer and documentary filmmaker Rob Stewart as part of a special public screening of his first movie: Sharkwater (2007). Those who know about my time spent down in South Carolina teaching environmental education and classes on sharks know how jazzed I was to have the opportunity to meet Stewart in person.
I set out for the ROM and joined a group of students from Malvern Collegiate armed with questions and a curiosity about this person who has found a way to change the way so many look at sharks.
It has been two years since Rob Stewart has been underwater with sharks. The memory of resting below water on a re-breather, letting no bubbles disturb the ocean around him as hundreds of hammerhead sharks swim in every direction, on all sides of him, is still fresh in his mind. Gaining the trust of these ancient creatures is no small feat - it takes hours of patient waiting and a fearlessnes that is no less trained than it is natural for this lover of creepy and crawly creatures.
Stewart's current project, however, has him firmly on land, trying to save humanity from itself. "The sharks are going to be fine," says Stewart, reciting their ability to survive five major extinctions and to live in the deepest, darkest trenches of the ocean. Stewart's immediate interest is shifting our focus to a bigger, more imminent dilemma: our own survival. With all that Stewart has learned over the past several years with Sharkwater, it is apparent that this is a story he needs to share with us. This project is a 3D documentary called Rise Again, which will feature several species, lots of adventure and exploration into the human practice of taking from the planet, and Stewart himself.
Pretty ambitious stuff, but Stewart seems to have caught the filmmaking bug after having pushed himself so hard while making Sharkwater, and he wants to see what he can do on a bigger stage.
When I asked him about his family, it's easy to see where his sense of drive comes from. His parents started up their own publishing business at 30, when Stewart was born, and have helped cultivate their son's appetite for wildlife with fish tanks and trips to Florida and the Caribbean. Growing up near York Mills and Bayview, Stewart was snapping underwater photos as a teenager and instructing scuba diving by 18. A couple of years at a private school and Western weren't really his bag, so he packed up and headed to a university in Kenya where he would spend summers working on photo assignments. Stewart now calls Los Angeles his home, in part because this is where he has the greatest access to funding and talent for future projects, and because he prefers being warm and on the ocean. Don't get Stewart wrong, though. He loves Toronto (especially riding bicycles and going to Muskoka). He just likes it a lot better in the summer.
SAs Stewart redirects his focus from sharks to humans, he still sits on many boards to help with the conservation effort and is proud of the accomplishments his first documentary has achieved. The film has helped change government policy in four countries and the number of countries that have banned finning grew from 26 pre- to 85 post-launch. Still, Stewart points out, "The greatest amount of sharks caught on record was in 2009 after we already knew their populations had dropped 90 per cent."
For the time being, Stewart is busy promoting a new
If you're concerned about sharks, or about what you can do to live a little more consciously, here are some sites Stewart shared with us:
Ethical seafood choices: www.seachoice.org
Help save sharks: www.savingsharks.com
Get educated, watch Sharkwater: www.sharkwater.com
(Photo credits: Portrait of Rob Stewart by Robert Sibbald, all others by Rob Stewart)
WOW!!! Great article!! Thanks for sharing your experience :)
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