"Sharkwater"

While most people have very likely seen a "Save the Whales" bumper sticker at some point in their lifetimes, it's pretty UNlikely that they've seen a "Save the Sharks" sticker. The terrifying "man eater" has been on the receiving end of a lot of bad press for a very long time. Shark attacks, though rare, always seem to end up on the evening news and those "When Animals Attack" type shows. In reality, there are more deaths by elephants every year but elephants don't have the same terrible reputation. The truth is that shark attacks are almost always a mistake--sharks see what they think is a tasty seal, fish or squid and go in for a snack, mistakenly biting the surfer or SCUBA diver instead.

Rob Stewart, a wildlife photographer, was a filming a movie about sharks and came across something that opened his eyes to the plight sharks are in.

(to watch the trailer, click on the Sharkwater link below and watch it on the movie's website)

Shark fins are a highly coveted delicacy in many Asian countries and more than 100 million sharks are killed every year on order to obtain them. Many times, the fins are cut off while the animal is still alive and then the shark is dumped back into the ocean to drown or bleed to death. Some people might ask why we care if sharks disappear. Besides the fact that they are a 450 million year old creature, they play an essential role in our oceans:

"The obliteration of sea otters led to an explosion in sea urchins, which then ate all the kelp," he (Stewart) explains. "Kelp was the perfect breeding ground for Pacific herring, so their population also plummeted. With no herring to feed on, sharks, tuna and dolphins began to disappear. If that is what happens when you take a seven-million-year-old species out of the food chain, imagine what will happen when you destroy a 450-million-year-old predator like the shark."

Stewart's movie "Sharkwater" is about the rapid decline of shark populations and the many illegal activities that surround it.