Rob Stewart’s Sharkwater: Extinction, coming fall 2018, makes waves in California

A glimpse of Rob Stewart’s footage from his upcoming Sharkwater: Extinction can be found in a video that’s designed to bring awareness to the destructiveness of the California drift net fishery. The nets catch endangered whales, dolphins, turtles and sharks, while they are licensed to catch swordfish. Called “Walls of death,” only one in eight animals caught are actually swordfish.

Media such as The Washington PostSan Francisco ChronicleABC Eyewitness News and others are reporting on it. WARNING! It contains some gruesome images.

Sharkwater filmmaker Rob Stewart and his Sharkwater Team inspired the investigation as far back as October 2016.

The initiative to persuade the Pacific Fishery Management Council to phase out the deadly nets, which can run a mile long and as deep as 100 feet, was announced on Tuesday by several conservation groups: Team Sharkwater, Mercy for Animals, SeaLegacy and the Turtle Island Restoration Network.

Stewart, who believed that “Together, we can make a difference,” and the Sharkwater team, helped bring the groups together to fight this common goal. Rob believed once people knew the issues, they could make better choices. Driftnet fishing has been banned by the UN and by all other U.S. states.

Cassie Burdyshaw of the Turtle Island group said, “Less harmful fishing methods have existed for years. We don’t have to kill endangered sea turtles and whales just to put swordfish on our plates.”

If you would like to sign the petition from SeaLegacy to US Senator Dianne Feinstein and US Senator Kamala Harris to ban the “death nets.” (https://www.sealegacy.org/pages/ban-deathnets).  Action comes in many forms, though; we can all stop eating swordfish…

Rob Stewart’s upcoming film Sharkwater: Extinction releases later this year.